35 Day Blog Challenge - Day 5: Suddenly the challenge is too much, or is it?

Linzé Brandon (photograph Francois A Venter)

Most writers work full-time to pay the bills and write after hours to indulge in their passion. I do the same. Only writing to me is not just a passion, it is an escape from the stressful hours I call work obligations.

I have often heard that people say they didn’t write or have stopped writing because real life interfered. And I think, seriously? If your writing is not part of real life, then what is it a part of? A fantasy? A dream? Of course, bad things happen, and it happens to everyone.

Think about it. If you or you child gets sick, you get time off from work. If someone close to you passes away, you are allowed time off. My employer allows me time to take care of myself or other issues, but then I get back to work. Right? The question I then ask myself, why should I stop writing if something happens? Is there not anything more to writing than spinning tales in book format?

Unlike my job, I find that writing can be therapeutic and healing. It doesn’t have to be the next book in my fantasy series that I write; it can be my journal. Sometimes it is only my journal and nothing else for days. The need to write has become such a part of me, that even when ‘real life’ happens, I have to write about it. Yes, I share my pain with people I love, but it is not the same as pouring out everything onto paper.

Paper never gets impatient with me. It never tries to ‘help’ where help is often not what I need. Sometimes people understand, sometimes they don’t. But in writing I can let go in a way I cannot do with another person. Perhaps that is just me, or perhaps you are the same, but it works for me. Writing is my ‘real life’ and the longer I do it, the more it becomes part of the way I define myself.

See you tomorrow!

If you want to see what the other participants are blogging about, you can find their blogs here. Why not pop on over and leave a comment?