As a newspaper editor, I can honestly say that published clippings aren't important to me - good writing samples are.

If you feel you want clippings, there are always zines and blogs and web sites and local publications that are desperate for writers. You can build up a repertoire that way. I did that back in the day, so have most writers I know.

Also, if you look to small town newspapers, you will find a transitory world where first time writers are sought after. Usually the way it works is that a 23 year old gets hired, spends a year, year and a half figuring out how to work on assignment and deadline, and then gets a better job at a slightly bigger paper. I see it happen again and again and again. Go to journalismjobs.com, look around.

Also, if you see ads for freelance work - it happens - write anything. I got my first paying gigs writing about sports. I knew nothing about sports, but I ended up doing it for over a year and next thing I knew I was doing regular work for the Boston Globe . . . writing about weddings. I knew nothing about wedding planning, but the pay was good, so I figured it out quick. Doing anything and thinking quick is the best plan to working as a writer.

Oh, and prepare to starve until you get to the point where you are only sort of starving. When it comes to newspapers, unless you're at a certain level, you'll starve with a full time job.

You want to be a writer. But what do you want to write about?

I research and write for a living, at a regular, 9-to-5, government job, so I have security, a pension, health care, paid vacation, union benefits, the works. The downside is that I'm not getting rich doing it, but I make enough, and I'm writing about something I love--old buildings. Who'd a thunk the government needed people to do that? Turns out it does.

I didn't go into college thinking, "I want to be a writer." But I did a lot of writing there, discovered I was decent at it, and graduated with a liberal arts degree which put me on the path to nothing specific but gave me a sense of what I was interested in. I spent the next four years writing for a trade magazine, which wasn't really what I wanted to do, but it was regular, kept me sharp, and gave me a chance to figure out what it was that I really liked and wanted to devote my life to. That ended up being historic architecture, so I went to grad school to study it, and it was the best thing I ever did. Now I'm happy as a clam, not only because I'm writing, but because I spend every day learning about a topic that never gets old for me, and working to interpret fairly complicated stuff for the general public, which gives me a lot of satisfaction.

People write about everything, of course. You're still young; spend some time working to discover what in the world you really love, what you could spend the rest of your life studying and learning about. The environment? TV shows? Politics? Food? Then do whatever you have to do to get a toehold in that field. (Often, that means grad school and a string of internships.) Once you're there, you'll find that a lot of the people around you can't write to save their lives, and that you'll be in demand, because explaining things clearly is harder than it looks, and people who can do it are always in demand.

Good luck!

I've been making my living (and a damned good on) as a freelance writer for more than 13 years, and though I now earn 95% of my income ghostwriting and co-writing nonfiction books, I started as an ad copywriter. That's a great place to get some experience. Even if you have no background in advertising, you can go to local businesses and offer to write their ads, brochures, websites or direct mail pieces. Offer to do the first one for free to prove you have the chops, then write the shit out of it. Then ask for a decent rate for subsequent work.

Once you have some work in your portfolio, get a job at an ad agency, design shop or web shop and spend a couple of years writing goal-oriented stuff on tight deadlines. You'll learn brevity, how to create actionable copy, and sometimes get a chance to be creative. You'll also make great contacts. That will also give you an income so you can write what you love in your off-time.

One more piece of advice: beware of writer's workshops. Most of them are circle jerks for wannabes who would rather talk about writing than write. The only groups I ever got anything out of were the ones where everyone had to produce a new piece of work every week. Writers learn by writing. Write something every day.

And for God's sake, start your own blog. It's free and simple and you can go off on any subject you like. What could be better than that?

Do this:

- Learn how to write really really well. Practice practice practice.

- Learn to select meaningful subjects and learn how to write about them interestingly.

- Get really, really lucky.

That's if you want to get paid. The fact is, you are a writer. It's what you do. It is what you aspired to. But making a living at it is something totally else again, and becoming a starving expatriate in Paris struggling to 'make it' may sound romantic - until you find out how many others ahead of you starved to death while struggling to 'make it'.

Honestly, the best way to become a writer is to do something else that requires that you write well - just not for the sake of writing. That could be just about anything.

For example. My job description does not say 'author'. Not even something similar. But a third of what I do is writing, at least.

I wanted to be a writer when I was young, also. The box of rejection letters is still here. So I gave it up and went off and did something else. And I ended up a writer anyway.

Sometimes it is better to consider that your intended ends would serve you better if you treated them instead as means. You could very well end up where you wanted to be in the first place, even if the road that gets you there was not the one you expected to take.