So you wanna be a writer?

 

Really?  Are you sure about this?

Are you prepared to enter full isolation? Lose friends? Avoid Family?

 

I'm being serious.  Dead serious.

Myself, I'm an extreme extrovert.  In fact, that probably isn't even giving credit to how much I actually feed off of other people's energy.  ENTJ according to Myers Briggs.

So, when I actually decided to COMMIT (operative word) to becoming a writer it was a painful, bloody process.  I sat at my desk and cried from the lack of external stimulation.  I watched my weight go up in increments of 10lbs at a time.  The external world drifted away from me.  Current events came and went and I was unaware because...

I was hanging out in my own world.  Writing.  Creating.  And trying very hard to discipline myself to sit for hours on end EVERY DAY putting words on a page.

I saw an interview the other day with Nia Vardalos who pretty much validates everything I am saying, and if I can find it, I'll post it at the end of this entry.  She basically says that all writers (more or less) hate the process of writing.

It's true. 

I know the common myth is that writers enjoy the good life sipping lattes and hanging out in cafes; but that's not really been my experience.  My experience has been one that involves the mental prowess of a JEDI to tune out the world that I actually live in, in order to create a world that others can escape into.

Most of the writers I know spend their days cursing the day they chose to become a writer.  It's riddled with anxiety, looming deadlines, saying "no" to fun things like trips away, patios, and family events.  Case in point; in the past three weeks I've had to miss three birthdays, half a dozen patio invites, two family emergencies, a funeral, and umpteen phone calls.

I've seen the resurgence of camel toe in pants that used to hang off of me.  My official uniform is comfy house wear.  And glasses.

I am a sex kitten no longer.

And the only reason that I dive head first into this pit of chosen isolation?  Is because, I am a writer.  And to not write takes away the essence of who I'm meant to be.  To not write creates a deep swell of anxiety that is probably synonymous to that of a Heroine addict.

 

I have to write.  It keeps me sane.

 

So, ask yourself: are you prepared to give up everything you previously used to define yourself in order to immerse yourself in writing?  Because good writing takes time.

 

Good writing is not only the ability to consistently put words to a page.  Good writing is the mental ability to commit to the time and effort it takes to put those words to a page.  And the additional time and effort it takes to make those words the best they can be.

 

I often turn to my Writer friends and say, "Seriously?  Why did I chose to do this?" and they just look at me with a smirk because they get it.  "You're a Writer," they say back. 

 

And Writers write.

See what Nia has to say after the 07:30 mark on the same thing.