What it's all about

The biggest problem with writing, with being a writer, is not learning craft well enough to be published. It’s not coming up with ideas. It’s not submitting or editors or agents or any of that.

The biggest problem with writing is balance. It’s somewhere between being a hermit and living life to its fullest. To be a writer – whether you are writing educational newsletters, greeting cards, short stories, or articles for magazines – is to examine the human condition. To do that, one must live. You have to get out there and allow yourself to live, love, and laugh, to know pain, sorrow, and regret. You have to be.

But to put words to paper, it is necessary to pull back, close the door, stop taking calls, tell your family that you are most definitely not talking to them this weekend, and lock yourself up in your own head with nothing but pen and paper (or laptop and keyboard) and to turn over the stones of what was in order to use that to move others.

Finding the balance. That’s what being a writer is all about.