1. Read as widely as you can. Try not to read rubbish, but soak up all sorts of good stories. Unconsciously you'll take in the way that established authors write their different styles, if you like. Your style, when it comes, will be yours and yours alone, for better or for worse, but it will have been affected by your reading.

2. Practise. No good saying, 'I'm going to be a writer.' Get on with it. Write, about whatever you fancy. The more you do it, the better you'll get.

3. Show what you've done to someone whose opinion of your work you would respect - Mum, Dad, other relations, your teacher. Listen to their comments or criticisms: don't get upset by them, think about them..

Dick King Smith is not a fan of new technology, and he uses an old-fashioned type-writer to write his stories rather than a computer. He reads his work aloud when he's finished, then reads it to his wife to see what she thinks.