Top 10 Reasons I Love Being a Writer

10. It’s an easy job. About as easy as, oh . . . brain surgery. Rocket science? Working on a chain gang? There’s wonderful quote from Gene Fowler that keeps popping up in various writers’ signature lines: “Writing is easy: all you do is stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” That sounds about right to me!

9. I make tons of money. It just depends on your definition of the word “tons.” For a paperback, writers make somewhere between 6-8% of the cover price of the book. My books cost $6.99. Do the math and figure out how many books I have to sell to make “tons” of money! (And then go out and buy a copy!)

8. I get so much fan mail I need an assistant to read it all. This was a fallacy I, myself, believed, until I met the published authors in my local RWA chapter. And yes, if you’re a New York Times bestselling author and a household name, you get tons of fan mail—more than you can handle. But if you’re just starting out, or you’re a mid-list author, every fan letter that comes into your inbox or your mailbox pretty much makes your day. So if you’ve been hesitant to write to your favorite author because you think she must be bored by all the reams of fan mail that fly her way, I urge you to go ahead and write. You have no idea what a lift you can give her!

7. I’ve got it all down to a science. Don’t I wish! One of the most frustrating things about writing is that no one method seems to work twice. For one book, sitting down and plotting it out in advance seems to be the only way I can get to “the end.” For another book, I can completely stifle my creativity by trying too hard to nail down the plot. For one book, all I have to do is keep writing through a block until magically the skies clear and the sailing becomes smooth again. For another, I have to figure out that the block means I screwed up something fifty pages ago and need to go back and fix it before I can move forward.

On one of my many writing lists, a fellow author said that writing is like solving a maze. You stumble through the dead ends and wrong turns, and you finally find your way out. Now you think—Aha! I’ve got it all solved. So you plunge back into the maze full of confidence, only to find someone has moved all the walls.

6. Now that I’m published, I’m just brimming with self-confidence. Yeah, right. My second book, Secrets in the Shadows, just came out on May 1, and I’m so nervous I should buy stock in Tums. I mean waiting in the wings, about to perform in front of millions of people on live TV in my underwear nervous. And you know what? I know some multi-published, bestselling authors who have informed me that this never goes away. Would someone pass the Valium, please?

5. Writing is a stable, dependable career. But only if you live in an alternate universe. In this universe, you never know when disaster might strike. Maybe your editor will leave, and your new editor won’t be a fan of your writing. Or maybe the hot genre you’re writing in suddenly hits an iceberg. (Can you say “Chick Lit”?) Or maybe you’ll get the Cover From Hell, and no one will pick up your book, much less buy it. And the best part is that none of this is under your control!

4. I love sitting alone in a room all day. When I go to conferences and actually speak to other writers, I get hoarse almost instantly. That’s because I spend most of every day sitting by myself in my office in front of the computer. I need to remind myself to get out of the house every once in a while and interact with other people. Like many writers, I’m a natural introvert, which means I have to fight the inclination to become a hermit.

3. There’s no pressure, since I work from home. And anyone who believes that has never tried writing to a deadline before! Deadlines can be great motivators for me. However, on a day when the writing is not flowing easily, or when I’m stuck on a plot point, a deadline can make me feel like the theme from Jeopardy is playing in my head.

2. All I have to do is write the book—the publisher takes care of everything else. Some people seem to thrive even without doing any self-promotion. But hey, some people win the lottery, too. It doesn’t mean I’m going to pin my hopes on being one of them. So I do book signings, I make book videos (check out the video for Secrets in the Shadows on my website). I do mailings to booksellers, I hang out on MySpace—and I do guest blogs, despite my looming deadline.

And the number one reason why I love being a writer is . . .

1. None of the other reasons matter—this is the best job in the world. The most rewarding moment of my career thus far was when a seriously ill fan wrote to say, “You help make very bad days oh so much better.” I burst out in tears when I read that, because books have gotten me through so many tough times in my life, and what kept me going through sixteen years of struggle and rejection letters was the desire to do for others what my favorite authors had done for me. Man, I love this job!

And for TWO lucky registered users here at Cigars, I want to give away some prizes! Chat with me and I'll draw names on Sunday and give away a signed copy of Watchers in the Night, and also a Secrets in the Shadows mousepad!