Friday, January 23, 2009

What’s Great About Being a Writer?

“You always find things you didn’t know you were going to say, and that is the adventure of writing.” – John Updike

It wasn’t difficult to come up with ten items yesterday for my list of the hardest things about being a writer. However, it was even easier to list reasons why it’s great to be a writer. Here are ten (in no particular order) of the many reasons why I love being a writer.

Becoming so absorbed in what I’m writing that I lose myself entirely

The joy of rushing to write when the solution to a scene I’m stuck on hits me like a bolt of lightning or the idea for a new book or short story

Watching my characters develop and being surprised by where they lead me

The thrill of seeing The Ride displayed in the front window of a Barnes and Noble Bookstore

The excitement of my first television interview on WINK TV with Sarah Augusthy

Reading unsolicited good reviews of my work

The opportunities to meet other authors and to learn from them

Someone telling me how much they enjoyed reading my book

The euphoria I felt when I received a publishing contract

A sense of pride and accomplishment at seeing a project through to the end

What do you consider great about being a writer?

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: The Ride, John Updike, Barnes and Noble, WINK TV, Sarah Augusthy,

5 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

Lots of things are great about being a writer. I love it when people refer to me as "the author," also when they say they enjoyed reading one of my books.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Katie Hines said...

Strangely enough, one of the great things for me is camaraderie of connecting to other writers, those who understand the mystical pull and the gut-wrenching need to put the words on paper (or computer).

Sharon Reece said...

I'd say the possibility of changing someone's life through your writing is the very best thing about being a writer. At least that's why I write.

And no, it's not April 14th. This is income tax that an employer has to pay and then do a W-2 for the employees (us) since we work for a non-profit organization.

Anonymous said...

Many of the comments you made are exactly how I feel, but I have to admit, the best part is knowing that someone enjoyed what I wrote.

Anonymous said...

The cleansing feeling after hours of emptying my brain onto pages and pages. (And the quality of the nap afterward!)

Krista
shadesofwhitematter.wordpress.com

Jane's Ride - Novelist Jane Kennedy Sutton's journey through the ups and downs of the writing, publishing and marketing world