15 Things I Love About Being a Writer

So it just recently came to my attention that I was tagged by both Hannah Heath and Abigail Post to participate in the "15 Things I Love About Being a Writer" tag. Both of these ladies have fantastic blogs that are full of creativity and encouragement, so when I saw that they tagged me, I got super excited! Thanks, guys! The tag was started by the amazing Raychel Rose, and I can't wait to join in.
So. Let's do this.
Raychel Rose ©2015
1. Viewing everything differently. I've been told by many different people many different times that I look at life in a different way because I'm a writer. That is very true, and I love it! Instead of a simple abandoned house, I see a potentially haunted manor with bodies buried in the backyard; a new home for a protagonist! When I'm watching movies, I find myself analyzing the plot or going "ooo!" at a really great piece of dialogue. I notice the smallest details around me, and I write a lot of things down. I look at the word through the eyes of a writer, and I love what I see.
2. "OH!" moments. You know how it feels. You're sitting there doing something when all of a sudden the explanation behind that one part of your plot just hits you and you have got to get to a notepad or computer right now! I love these moments because they're just so satisfying!
3. Crazy notes. Sometimes when I need to get myself unstuck when I'm brainstorming, I open a word document and write out all of the notes I know about the scene or character or whatever it is I'm trying to figure out. And most of the time, my notes look like they've been written by a crazy person. For example, the other day I wrote this down: 
and it makes complete and total sense to me (actually it makes me really excited.) As a writer, I have some seriously crazy notes, and it makes me really happy.
4. Research. I do a lot of research for writing, and sometimes what I look up can seem pretty bizarre. I've researched guns, brainwashing, memory implants, shot wounds, bullet grazes, blood loss, blood infections, and sooo much more. I love research, so the fact that the thing I am passionate about requires a ton of researching is just amazing.
5. The fact that I immerse myself into other worlds and lives on a daily basis. As weird as that sounds, I love it. Sometimes my life can be stressful, or frustrating, or sad. Sometimes life sucks. So when I'm upset or introverting hardcore, all I have to do is grab a hot cup of tea (which sounds really good right now . . . I should go make some) and my laptop and open up my current WIP. Writing is a big stress reliever for me because it takes all of my focus away from the real world for a few minutes or hours and allows me to focus on characters and stories. And who doesn't love a good story?
6. Writing zones. This is by far one of my absolute favorite parts of being a writer. Sometimes when I'm writing, I get lost in my own words. I lose myself in my story and the worlds I've created and when I look up from the screen, I realize a whole hour has passed. It's such a satisfying and invigorating feeling, especially since my best writing tends to come from zones like these.
7. Weirdness. As Hannah put it in her post, I have an excuse for being weird. Seriously, though! There have been times when I was so stressed in school that I would go to study hall, sigh, and go, "gosh, I need to kill a character." And then I would proceed to open a word document and begin writing a death scene and no one would think anything of it. If I did happen to get a weird look, one of my friends would say, "oh, she's just a writer!"
8. Storyboards. I don't think I need to explain how much I love using Pinterest to create storyboards because I talk about it sooo much on this blog.
9. My babies. I love my characters. What writer doesn't? One of my favorite things about being a writer is that I can create so many different characters with different ages and personalities and looks. All of them are special and unique, and it will never cease to amaze me that all of these different people come from my own brain.
10. Weapons of mass creation. My notebooks are shields and my pens and pencils are my mighty swords. Watch out, characters. You gon' die.
11. Gaining inspiration anywhere. Like I mentioned earlier, as a writer, I see the world differently. One of the perks of that is the fact that practically anything I look at gives me some sort of inspiration. When I'm out somewhere crowded, I'm people watching and mentally saying, "King. Hero. Fairy. Villain. Villain. Oh, she looks like an awesome main character. Whoa, that guy looks just like my character!" And other times, I'll hear one of my friends say something simple and it'll spark a million ideas in my head. For example, two years ago at lunch time one of my friends put a pretzel in my other friend's water bottle. That friend took a sip of their water, noticed the strange thing floating in it, and said, "what did you put in my water?! It's contaminated!" Or something like that. I then sat there in shock as my mind was like: what if the water really is contaminated oh my gosh what if all the water everywhere is contaminated and we don't even know it like what if the government were to put something in water that made it so people acted or looked a certain way oh my gosh that would be so easy to do I mean everyone drinks water! . . . Yeah. Moving on.
12. I'm rarely bored. I love being a writer when I'm sitting in a boring class or in the car on a long road trip, because my mind just wanders. Suddenly I'm writing scenes in my head and watching them like a movie. Even without a notebook or my laptop, my mind just goes on to write scenes and create characters and build worlds. It's amazing.
13. The writing community. I love being a writer because it allows me to meet other writers! Most of my writing friends are people I've met online, mainly through Pinterest and this blog. And I'm so glad I've met all these people! It's always amazing when a bunch of people come together to encourage each other, and that's exactly what the writing community is. You all are awesome :)
14. Headcanons. I don't even think I can begin to describe how much I love doing this. Yes, I have headcanons for my own book and for what happens after my stories because I am the author and I can do that! I've written a whole bunch of scenes of my characters after the actual books end; things that my future readers may never have eyes on. I also have incorporated certain twists and secrets into my book that make sense to me and a few other writing buddies, but nobody else. It's fantastic :)
15. It makes me a better person. As a writer, I have to have patience for a lot of things. I have to go through the editing process (sometimes looots of times) with my books, and then I have to wait for responses from agents and publishers. I have to be hopeful and brave, and I have to handle rejection well. And most importantly, I have to be a dreamer with a big imagination and the belief that one day, my dream of being published will come true.

So there it is! 15 things I love about being a writer. Now I get to tag some lovely people, but unfortunately, a lot of the people I would like to tag have already been tagged before, so I'm only tagging a few. But if I don't tag you and you want to do this, go right ahead! Just be sure to link back to my blog in your post. :)

I tag:

Jennifer Saur @ Within the Ivory Palace

Amy Rochelle @ Scribbles of a Writing Maverick

Zoë Gallagher @ The Zoë Gallagher Blog

And anyone else who wants to do this!

If I tagged you and you don't want to participate, you absolutely don't have to. But if you do, I can't wait to read your post!