Being A Writer, The First Month

For so long, being a writer was my dream job. For years, I tried to convince my wife to let me stay home and write. But what happened when she actually said yes? I felt like a kid whose parents finally allowed me to have a sleepover, but I didn’t have any friends.

On my first day as a writer, I burned my old work shirts. Despite the fact that the shirts were tattered and worn at the elbow, burning them may have been a bit excessive. Perhaps the same childish part of me that enjoyed playing with fire was the part that sparked my interest in telling stories.

The Writer: A Water Balloon That Plays With Fire

Being a writer is like being a water balloon with holes poked in it. For each hole, you can let a story escape. If you start too many stories without finishing, you’ll drain yourself.  If you don’t let the stories out, you may explode. A good writer can write about anything. They can be given a mundane topic and make it interesting. They can talk about what they know and make up what they don’t. A creative writer can make the story interesting in a way that you never expected.

Have you ever woke up from a dream and thought that it was a fascinating story? Then when you try to tell somebody else about the story, it ends up being uninteresting or confusing. This is what it’s like to be a writer. Every. Single. Time.

The Writer’s Lease

Last week, I started my new job as a writer. By this, I mean that I get to sit at home and play pretend. I can make up anything that I want. I talk to myself to hear if written conversations sounds real. I get to flesh out stories that have been lingering for more than a decade. I get to work my dream job. But how did this happen? What does it mean to turn a dream into a reality? This blog is meant to be a writer’s journal. Because I can’t post what I am working on, I will mostly be talking about the writing process. My hope is that people can follow me from being an unpublished writer to an author.

When my wife, Leigha agreed to let me pursue a career as a writer, it came with several stipulations. First,