WHO AND/OR WHAT IS A WRITER?

Just like most industries, the creative world of writing, composing colorful, fascinating characters all of them with goals, flaws, likes and dislikes, eccentricities, and strengths, is a constantly revolving door.  If you write a story and it contains subject matter that is currently in style, chances are good that someone will notice it and offer you a contract.  If the door on that particular subject matter has closed, just wait a year or more and it will swing open again sooner or later. You just have to wait for it. Of course, talent is definitely a plus. Most people think, at one time or another in their lives, that they would like to write a book.  For most, this is a very difficult task, no matter how patient, how good you are with writing essays, how well you know the English language, etc., it takes discipline and the right frame of mind to be a writer.

So, who is a writer?  This person may or may not have vivid dreams in surround sound and bright color, have characters form in their heads that want you to write their story and will not leave you alone until you comply. Some may say that to have this going on in your head qualifies you for the funny farm complete with straight jacket. Sometimes, the person experiencing this phenomena will agree with you. For others, it is simply a love of the forming of words into a picture that leaps off the page at you in crystal clear 3-D imagery.  But, this is simply WHO a writer is.

When asked the question; "What is a writer?" Well, that is a question only a writer can answer.  For me, being a writer means having an intimate relationship with all my characters, being part of them and not just in their heads, but laughing and crying with them through all the stages of their stories.  Loving some, hating others and being able to see them act out page after page of scenes from living and dying to fighting and loving until their journey is exhausted, leaving me drained but completely sated. Being a writer means loving the craft from not just my heart and my head, but from my very soul and wanting to share it with the entire world. 

When someone asks me what I do; I tell them I am a writer first and foremost. To do otherwise is a great injustice to who I am.

Writing is my dream. From romance to dragons: fairies to fantasy worlds, this is where I live and play. Thanks be to God!!                          - Lisa Hannah Wells