Why I Hate Being a Writer

I hate being a writer.

We are the ones no one understands,

We are the outcasts,

We create things that people cannot wrap their minds around,

We make people think,

We make people believe,

It scares them,

And I love it

I hate being a writer.

You have so many voices in your head,

Different voices screaming to be heard over the others

Until there is a war of screams in your mind,

It’s loud,

It’s annoying,

And I love it

I hate being a writer.

You beg your characters to stay

When they try to run away

Even if their story is almost complete

Because if they stop talking to you

Their story will stay incomplete,

At least until they come shyly back to you

Wanting to have and ending,

It drives you crazy,

And I love it

I hate being a writer.

I am forced to compete against others of my kind,

Others who think and act like me,

Hoping to invent something that people will like,

But it doesn’t matter how much time we spend

Slaving away at the paper

Crossing out words

Tearing out pages

Ripping our hair out when we cannot think,

Because if no one takes the pride in our work that we do,

We will be forced to start anew

Because there is always someone better,

And though we are the same

We are at a silent war with one another,

It’s exhausting

And I love it

I hate being a writer.

I always have a thousand notebooks

Yet whenever I need to write down a thought I cannot

And I ignore everyone else in desperation

Trying to remember,

I am criticized though they do not know

The tangled plot lines inside my mind,

I am reprimanded for always wanting to write

Because nothing can fill the need to write

But writing itself,

It’s infuriating,

And I love it

I hate being a writer.

I spend hours building worlds,

Listening to the stories the characters have to tell,

Writing it all down without missing a detail

Only to be rewritten as it is told,

I know everything that will happen before it does

Yet I still find myself crying after a tragic death,

I get goosebumps as ideas become reality in my mind,

It’s breathtaking,

And I love it

I hate being a writer.

As writers we experience joy and pain like no one could imagine,

But while we say that the hardest part of being a writer

Is the excruciating editing that comes after the story is told,

The hardest part about being a writer

Is when it’s time to say goodbye

To the people who we have brought to life

And come to love so dearly,

With the end of each story,

There is always the feeling of satisfaction

And the want to erase it all and begin again,

As a writer we have the power to destroy entire worlds

Yet it is more enjoyable breathing life into them,

We are a fountain of words that we must string together, scrambling to create something that will touch people’s hearts,

It’s painstaking, tiring effort,

An entire life of its own,

Worrying about what will happen next,

Often including days without sleep,

I hate it,

And I love it