1. Have something strange/unusual/horrible happen to you during childhood (preferably hard child labor).
If you had a pretty laid back childhood, harken the emotions you felt when you really really wanted to go to mall and your mom said no.
2. Write a book which hardly veils the fact that your main character looks a lot like you and has a lot of the same problems and personality ticks.
How else can we live forever? However, naming this main character after yourself is frowned upon. Try to avoid that if possible.
3. Make lots of money.
Pretty self-explanatory, I think.
4. Spend your money in frivolous ways. This can be in a way of your choosing. Gamble it away. Spend it on your mistress. Lose it all prospecting. The more scandalous, the better.
What do Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain have in common? They made a lot of money, then wasted it in foolish endeavors. Oh, and they also wrote some of the best books known to humankind. Coincidence? I think not.
5. Either die rich or die poor. But don’t EVER die middle-class.
Did you hear of the writer who died with a modest sum of money in the bank, just enough to settle his last earthly affairs with some change leftover for the grieving family? Neither did I.
C. L. Parson 