The biggest part of being a writer (or trying to be one) is not at all about writing. 

Mostly it's about daydreaming, staring into space, a blank page, a phone screen, or lousy Facebook memes that distract you from doing what you should be doing in the first place.

You spend sleepless hours every night chasing that flighty thought you so want to put down on paper. You type a line or a paragraph that seems brilliant until you sleep on it and it looks like rubbish in the morning.

There's also the constant self-doubt. If you're confident and complacent, know that you're not going to be a good writer. Writing and doubt are like a Siamese twin. Try to Separate them and there's a chance for a disaster to happen.

There's also a lot of neurosis in the process. You're submerged in the feelings of people that do not exist. And you beg them to exist. You take it upon yourself to make them alive, nurture them and love them and care for their needs. Be their slave and their executioner, too.

There's so much anxiety, obsessive thinking, and behavioral changes when you're trying hard to bring your imaginary children to life. To think about it, it's like - don't laugh - pregnancy symptoms. There's emotional turbulence, suffering, morning sickness, mood swings, and it ends with the pain of labor. It's not so pretty until you see the outcome.

Your whole life could drift off to that imaginary world, and you lose a big part of your reality. Especially if it's not a very nice one. Many writers write to escape. And many write to feel in control of something they might have  lost in their real lives.

Everyone talks about a balance. That's close to a myth. There's no balance in creativity. Unless you're an experienced wordsmith with a few decades of writing and dozens of published books under your belt. You'd sit at your desk and all the creative juices spill on paper. (Gross image, yeah!)

But that's just one point of view of how it works. Feel free to share your thoughts.

M.B