I'll just say it now. Being an author is one of the best things in the whole world. You get to live half your life in a world of your own creation, you can write about other people without it being considered creepy, and yes, you usually have full control over every situation.

I say "usually", because a story sometimes takes on a life of its own after enough character development. The characters will then take the plot and run with it, leaving you—the writer and creator—in the dust. I actually had to put aside a novel I was working on, because it grew to deep for me to write, with my limited life experience.

The characters really do take over your life. I've been in situations where I've wondered how my protagonist would handle the whole thing. Occasionally, I'll get emotional over songs, not because they speak to me personally, but rather to the people who live in my head.

Another great part of being an author is worldbuilding. I just love creating fantasy settings! Inspiration is everywhere, from the sights I see when hiking out in nature to the random and somewhat bizarre knickknacks that turn up in my closet.

There's something exciting about designing a fantasy setting; it's like exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations. Ask me about the worlds I'm building sometime, and I guarantee you'll have a hard time getting me to stop talking!

I shouldn't neglect to tell you about the interesting and somewhat challenging process of outlining a plot. It's always easy to come up with the basic premise, as I am inspired by all sorts of things. The tricky part is getting everything to work properly as a cohesive story. Every writer struggles with something different; for me, it's coming up with a satisfactory conclusion.

However, working on the rest of the plot is a ball. Fellow authors will understand when I say that putting the characters through the wringer is really kind of fun. Not that I don't feel bad for the characters' trials, but the character growth that results outweighs any guilt I might feel about causing pain to a fictional person.

You know, writing is really just a socially acceptable form of torture. I've already mentioned how we torment our characters. An equal satisfaction I derive from writing is the thought that I may break my readers' hearts and put them through all sorts of grief alongside the protagonist. It's a win-win for me!

Beyond all of that, writing is an excuse to play with language. I can range from poetic eloquence to terse sentence fragments. Plus, in a sci-fi or fantasy story, I get to make up my own words, and sometimes even a whole language.

I suspect that I will start to ramble if I continue. At any rate, I hope that this has shown you why I love writing so much. Perhaps you understand a little more about what goes on inside an author's head.

And if I'm lucky, you might even believe that I'm not quite as fruity as a nutcake.