Being a writer is harder than it sounds. Weird, right? Surprisingly, my words don't flow out of my pen like they have a mind of their own. Writing takes time, and I don't mean the spare hour between classes that you have to finish an essay that's due for your next class. Writing takes real time. It can take days to find the correct wording to convey what you really mean.

You may not realize it, but there were multiple, and I do mean multiple, copies of the stories you've read. From their infancy in the author's head until it hits the shelves, there were entire chapters that were erased or included before it reached your hands. There were hours of work writing and rewriting in front of a computer or on a blank piece of paper. Hands cramped under the pressure of having to write for long periods of time. Many writers' books were rejected and were told their work wasn't good enough. But, writers are resilient. They bounce back after being told their work wasn't good and submit it somewhere else. It takes months of research to create the perfect background, and the plot has to be planned. Who else can say they do that for fun?

Writers create worlds from a single idea that flourished inside their minds. They write about their lives, which shows their readers a glimpse of who they really are. They can start a revolution with words. The next time you talk to a writer or think about blowing off reading a book, remember that it wasn't easy to create the two hundred, or more, page novel that currently resides on your bookshelf.