The pros and cons of writing.

I wrote a post the other day about the pros and cons of reading so I decided to do a follow up with that today about - you guessed it - the pros and cons of writing!

Of course writing can be different for each individual. For me, it's an art. It's being creative and the pro here is that it tests the limits of the imagination. If you can think something, you can make it happen. Everything around us has a story to tell. Perhaps the stranger next door was inspiration for a mystery thriller, a fond memory of days past became a romance novel, the song of a bird became a poem, and a simple painting became a fantasy novel. 

Some people believe that  sci-fi is more interesting and you may have more flexibility if you write about the future, but I personally believe there's something more enchanting about the past. Whether you're writing about the future or the past, you always have the freedom to imagine something that didn't happen and make it happen. When you write, you get to create a new world - maybe it's a world you used to live in or a world that you wish you could live in. You get to create people - maybe they resemble yourself or someone you used to know; maybe they resemble someone currently in your life or maybe someone you'd like to know. Just like when you read, the world on the page seems real when you write. You decide how they talk and soon you can hear their voice inside your head as if you're remembering that conversation. You get to see them grow and mature as they battle through the obstacles you've placed in their life. You may also see their downfall.

Above have all been the pros of writing. Now for the cons, and to me, that's one of the worst things about writing: seeing someone's downfall. Seeing someone die. Maybe they died a hero. Maybe they didn't. Maybe they were killed by someone, or maybe they took their own life. Perhaps they died a natural death. Maybe it was fate and they were gone too soon. Sometimes the reader grieves the loss of a character as much as the writer did. It's not always easy what we have to write about, but sometimes it needed to happen that way. Another con is this really annoying thing called writer's block. The muses are very kind to you and then suddenly they just stop and you're stuck (for anyone reading this, I just want to add that I don't believe in the muses - I just like to call it something and by it I mean those precious moments where you're on a roll and your hand seems to write before your brain can even comprehend it). You're characters have stopped, their world has stopped. It can last for hours, days, or even weeks as I've experienced. I can't just sit down and write. I have to feel something. I have to be inspired.

I got on a topic that I feel I could go on about forever and ever! Trying to keep these posts to a minimum though, I'll stop rambling now. Again, if you guys have any thoughts, I'd love for you to share them in the comments! ;)