The way I started was to take a look at the contests, look at what is wanted within there. Use that as your brief, sometimes when starting out it can be difficult because you want to do everything at once. Stick to the brief but don't aim to be done in a short time scale (if you are and fancy your chances then post it for the contest) If you do stick to the brief and not stray by adding more and more objects etc.. you find that you can concentrate on the image you want. What I did was forget about the backgrounds to start with and concetrate on the figure. Choosing the right sort of look, pose, textures and clothing (optional apparently) then more importantly work on the lighting and cameras. It is suprising how the last 2 can change the look of an image, try and get away from the default settings. Whatever you do, do not think that all it will take is a couple of clicks. Then rinse and repeat as necessary. Keep practicing and keep coming back to the original and tweeking it until you are happy with it. Most importantly seek help when stuck don't get over frustrated if something is not turning out as expected, ask the question here. More than likely someone else has had the same problem before and hopefully they found the answer. Another thing, get used to the lack of sleep fairly quickly. Cos if you are just starting with poser then you can expect lots of times sitting behind a computer thinking "I'll just do this and then go to bed..." You find that 5 hours later you are saying the same thing to yourself. And welcome to the world of Poser, hope you enjoy it.