I really need to get back to writing. I find it helps me when I escape into the written word. There’s nothing better than being transported from where I’m sitting in front of the computer and slipping into a story I am creating. And though I am creating it, I swear the story takes on a life of its own. When I get into that deep of a level of writing, I feel like I’m just reporting what the characters are doing–rather than consciously coming up with it. I don’t know if that makes sense to people who aren’t writers. Maybe even the plotters have no idea what I mean. Have you ever watched a movie and got so engaged with it that you forgot you were watching it? That’s what writing is to me. I start out at the computer and am typing, but at some point, I forget I’m typing. I somehow get “transported” into the story. I become the character whose point of view I’m writing.

So anyway, today was the first day in a while that I finally had a chance to sit and write. I forgot how wonderful it was to be immersed in the stories. I know how difficult it is to separate the creative aspect of writing from the business side of it. The two are really different. The business side is the potential to either make money to pay bills (or to keep paying bills if you’ve reached that goal). It needs attention. Even writers who write for passion have to spend some time with the business angle in mind. It’s one of the frustrating parts of writing to me. If only there wasn’t a need to pay the mortgage or rent. If only there wasn’t a need to buy food to eat. If only there wasn’t the need to buy clothes and other necessities. But we live in the real world where these things matter, and there is no job on earth that I would rather have than this writing one. I get why authors want to make a living with this. It is stressful to worry about marketing, but I would rather go through that stress and be able to write. At the end of the day, writing is what defines me. It is the thing that gives me purpose. I bet the writers reading this understand what I mean by that. We can do something else, but this is the “job” that most fulfills us.

Anyway, I have missed getting immersed in my stories. I missed these characters. I missed spending time in the worlds I create. So I’m going to renew my efforts. I think the break I took was good. I think I needed to get away from writing since I was in burnout mode. But I feel like it’s time to get back to it. The creative side is screaming to come back out. And I’m looking forward to what the stories I’m working on will take me. I’ll post about them soon. 🙂