Being a writer isn't that simple. If it was, everyone would do it. Writers are a very peculiar species of human, and the professional ones might as well be classified as super heroes. If you're considering being a writer, or if you know someone who is one and you just don't understand, or you want to know what it's like, here's a little insight into what it's like to be a writer.

Writing isn't for the faint of heart,

it is often fueled by sleepless nights, copious amounts of caffeine, and frustration strong enough to make you want to scream. Oh, and a deadline. Those tend to make it very interesting.

Every word has to be perfect, or the whole piece will fall apart. One word out of place, that's all it takes. One single word and the whole feeling of a piece can change. The emotion can die, the flow can falter. And there will be times when you will sit down and write the same sentence three hundred times, because you just can't get it right.

People will never think you're actually working.

No seriously, they won't. They'll walk up and talk to you in the middle of a paragraph and distract you and you'll have to start all over. Or they'll make comments about how you never do anything because writing doesn't look like most work. Often, writers work by kicking their feet up and closing their eyes, letting the story unfold in their head so that they know how to write it one the page. Or they pace. Or they drop their heads on their desks in frustration. That's when they're working the hardest, when they don't look like they're doing anything at all.

It's a thankless profession.

Unless you're famous, no one is going to walk up to you on the street to thank you for the writing that you have done. You'll be a name on a cover or at the bottom of a page and that'll be it. Think about it: you see the work of writers every day, on television, in movies, on billboards, in your textbooks, and even now, on this screen. And no one thanks those writers. No one even thinks to.

You will never stop writing.

No, seriously, ever. When you're trying to fall asleep or when you're driving down the road, or when you're taking a shower, you'll be writing. There will be words and ideas and corrections spinning through your head every second of the day, and there will be no escaping it.

Writing isn't easy. It isn't simple or quick. It's complicated and irritating and exhausting and it will drive you crazy. But oh, is it worth it.