Writing is...

Today's the beginning of a new journey for me. I'm starting a new blog--ALL ABOUT WRITING with a few other aspiring authors. It's called Tangled Up In Words and I am completely in love with everything about it.  (And I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it next week!)

I love that five people who share dreams, frustrations, hopes and a passion for writing found each other. This blog is a huge piece of our hearts, and I am so excited that we finally get to share it with the world. If you write at all, you should go check it out. We're only just starting. The next two weeks are going to be full of interviews--with each other and with authors--but then, we're jumping in to the nitty gritty stuff. We're going to talk about things we're learning, things we're seeing and wondering--and we really hope that other people jump in to the community.

Amidst all the planning for Tangled, I've been thinking a lot about what writing is and what writing isn't. Maybe I'm wrong on some of these, but they some things I've been learning.

Writing isn't....

a thing you do just because there's nothing else to do.  
Okay, so maybe for some people it is that, but I don't think that's what writing is supposed to be. It's a fluid movement, a journey, a never-ending process that's sometimes wraught with frustration, sometimes with joy, sometimes with awe, sometimes with sadness. It's part of you. It's something you must do because there's nothing else that can make you feel all those things at once.

easy.
Writing. Is. Not. Easy. I don't care if your uncle Bubba's second cousin's friend's sister's ex-boyfriend wrote a book in four hours and it was the best thing you ever read---Writing is not easy. It's hard. It's long. It's questions and answers. It's answers to the wrong questions. It's characters, plots, motivations, revisions, edits, long conversations with yourself, long conversations with others, plot holes, twists, tension, critiques, pacing, world-building, shiny-new ideas all the time that distract you, original ideas, unpredictability, revisions again, long hours of sleepless nights, early mornings, rewrites...

Get it? If you're tired then you get it. If not then read that again, because it's the same thing over and over and over. Writing is not easy. But if you love it, if you completely and absolutely can't survive without it--then you don't even care.  That's what writing is.

Writing is...


life.    love.    frustration.      revision.    ideas that expand and grow.    need.     characters that have stories to tell.    hope.    sadness.      every single emotion you can think of captured in a flickering moment.      a dance.      a song.      an adventure.    a sparkle of sunlight on a cloudy day.   rest.   constant.    inconsistent.       joy.        believing in impossible things.      friendship.    learning so many things you never knew you needed.    a journey.    escape.     breath.    happiness.    capturing.    inexpressible.    survival.     community. 

I don't know about you, but sometimes putting words on a page is the hardest thing I will ever, ever, ever do in a day. Other days it's the easiest. I think that's the beauty of all the things that writing is. Whatever those things are, they're always filled with new surprises.
And there are days--many many days--when I question what I'm doing and if it will ever, ever matter. But I know it does matter. It's part of me. It's given me the life I have right now and the amazing people who fill it up. Community is so important to a writer because on those dark days, it's what will get you through.


If you need community, if you want encouragement and challenges, then check us out on Tangled. We're right there with you. We need the same things. We need a place to share the things we're learning, to get encouragement, to build community. Take a few minutes this week to come by and leave us a comment all about you.

Build community because it's such a huge part of what writing is.