5 Reasons I Love Writing

1. It's fun

Writing is make-believe for non-kids. I was one of those people that hung onto childhood for a tad too long. I'm pretty sure I was still playing house with my dolls when I had my first couple serious crushes. Imagine an eleven-year-old girl trying to get a boy to like her while carrying a stuffed rabbit around like it was her child... not a pretty image. Anyway, it was only a couple years after I stopped playing that I started writing, and boy was it fun. Just like with make-believe when I was young, through writing I could be whoever I wanted, I could do whatever I wanted, and I could go wherever I wanted. A blank word document is my own personal jungle gym.

2. It's challenging

Over the last four years, I have used trial and error to improve my writing. Because I am primarily self-taught, the writing process has challenged me as I've gone along. I have had to learn to look dissect books I like to figure out what it is about them that draws me in. I then apply similar principles into my writing. I have also learned to look at my work critically and to re-work it to make it better. Writing is always a work-in-progress and that is what makes it so great. I'm really competitive with myself, so I'm always striving to write better.

3. I can get out all my crazy teenage angst on paper

Let's face it, teenagehood is full of near-insane mood swings caused by crazy hormone voodoo. You're happy one minute and bawling your eyes out the next. It's a known fact that 83.673% of a person's teenage life is spent thinking either "WTF is wrong with me?" or "What the hell am I doing with my life?" But, writing lets me get rid of all my teenage crazy and put it to something useful. The hormone-induced anger and sadness helps me write the emotions believably into my stories. Except, of course, in my stories the characters actually have legitimate reasons for feeling the way they do.

4. I can help others

Writing transports ideas. It has the power to help people through hard times and influence them to fight for social change. I always try to include some kind of social or political statement in my writing. I aim to make myself think critically while I'm writing and to make my readers use their brains as well. I always have strong opinions on social issues, and writing allows me to spread these opinions! 

5. It makes being single better

This one is crazy pathetic...and yet very much so true. When you're able to live vicariously through characters in your book, your lack of a love life does not make you upset. It takes a lot of work to find a real life guy that is interesting, but it takes no time to write one up!

Here's a funny song to go with point #5. It's called "Boys in Books are Better" and it's by Carrie Fletcher