Being a writer isn't as easy as it looks. If you are a writer, you know the everyday struggles. The world will never know how hard it is to be a dying race of intelligent, creative people. With that being said, here is a list of the 10 struggles that we face as writers.
1. Late-night Thoughts
Any time past midnight is prime time for writers to pursue their craft. Unfortunately, those are the moments when we need to be sleeping. So, instead of catching those Z's that we desperately need, we crack open the old journal or bring out the laptop and type away.
2. Shower Thoughts
This struggle is much like the first, but even more difficult. When you're getting all washed up, a plot pops into your mind and you swear to yourself that you won't forget it, but when it comes time to write, you literally have no recollection of your story.
3. Everyone is making books into movies.
We get it, your book is so great that you had to make a movie with an amazing soundtrack. This struggle isn't so much annoying as it is discouraging. When us writers see those books turned to movies trailers, we get scared that our book will never be the next "Hunger Games" or "Harry Potter."
4. We get paid for coming up with ideas.
People truly believe that being a writer is a lazy job, but, in reality, we literally have to come up with 300+ pages every year in order to get paid. Plus, those 300+ pages have to good enough for people to want to buy them.
5. Every idea seems to be taken.
As we get further into the future, more and more ideas are being thought of. Your idea that you had for that one story, well, someone already made a book about it and it's probably amazing!
6. People seem to know your struggles.
Nothing is worse than people trying to relate to your struggles, especially if they know nothing about them. I don't think that you know how difficult it is to write 300+ pages within a given time frame.
7. Competition
Everybody needs some friendly competition, right? That's not true for writers. Writers cannot compete against each other. It becomes brutal, painful, and, eventually, someone ends up throwing all of their writing out of some window or something.
8. Advice/Criticism
As much as we try to welcome it, writers hate criticism. We take it as you thinking that you know more than we do about something that we've been training to do for years. We take criticism as you controlling our books and we hate it.
9. Personal Life
If you've ever met a writer, you know that 24/7 365 days a year their life revolves around whatever project they are working on. It becomes difficult because sometimes we want to go out and have a great time, but writers are usually very quiet and would rather stay in and read/write their book. We like you, but we want to stay in.
10. Writer's Block
OK, so many people have heard about writer's block, but only writers know the true struggle. It isn't just not being about to come up with anything. You cannot think at all! Imagine that you are stuck on a road. Suddenly, the road gives out and there isn't a way for you to get to the other side. However, instead of coming up with ideas on how to reach the other side, you turn around and go back home because what is the use trying if you think that you're going to fail?
Us writers are a creative folks and we need to stick together. We need to be together, inside our own homes, behind our laptops, and cuddled up in our favorite blanket and some nice tea. We aren't crazy, we're just really passionate about our work.
