Life as a Writer -A Guest Post by Marisa

Hey everyone! I'm Marisa, from The Writing Dancer. I'm so honored to be guest posting on The 828. Thank you so much Paige, for asking me!

So, today I thought I'd talk about life as a writer. Because if there's one thing that's certain, there's nothing easy about being a writer. Sometimes we're stuck. Sometimes we want to pull our hair out and smack the computer. Sometimes we convince ourselves that there's no point to it, that we suck and nothing will ever come from it. Any of you ever have writing downs like that? I know I have.

But you know what. We always keep writing. The love for it trumps the frustration. And when something clicks with your story, it's the best feeling in the world. Don't you love when you feel like you'll never run out of things to say, that you could keep writing forever? That single high definitely outweighs all the lows.

Also, many of us are teen writers. We have to balance school, any extracurriculars, homework, with the writing. It's hard! I dance four days a week, and I'm vice president of my class. On top of that, I take all honors classes. I know a bunch of you are the same way. Sometimes I can't get in any writing during the week, which is just sad. I think it's important to ALWAYS make time for the writing, even if it's just a half hour and 500 words.

Writers are notorious for having numerous incomplete projects. I actually finished my first novel. Looking back, it sucked. (And I'm doing a complete and total rewrite of it currently.) But you know what, I can say I FINISHED A BOOK!!! Not too many can say that. I've finished two books actually, but I will admit that there's projects I ditched before they even hit the 10k mark. Commitment is difficult. Once you make that decision, and say "I'm GOING to finish this book," don't even doubt yourself. Just write. No question that you will be doing tons of rewriting. But there's nothing more satisfying than getting that first draft out.

Play around, genre wise. Test yourself out. You may end up with a fabulous idea for a genre you never even considered writing when you first sat down. My two first completed books are contemporary fiction. What am I writing now? A dystopia. If you told me two years ago that I'd be writing a dystopia today, I'd be like "What's dystopia?" Baha. Who knows, maybe down the line I'll write a book about evil sparkly vampire spawn. (LOL)

And then don't forget the crazy writing hours. Please tell me I'm not the only one who easily stays up until 2/3am writing? Actually, some of my inkpop friends have gotten really into this comic strip site, and I made a comic about writers insomnia.

Yes, life as a writer may not be practical. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

What about you? What do you write? What have your ups and downs been? Have you finished a book? And I guess the most important question, WHY do YOU write?

Come visit me over at The Writing Dancer!

-Marisa :]