My Favorite Things About Being a Writer

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! First off, I'd like to say Happy Thanksgiving to my readers in the USA!! 

Today I'm going to be talking about my favorite things about being a writer. I'm also going to be talking about a few of my least favorite things about being a writer.

I have been a writer for about 4-5 years now, so I have found many things I love about it. 

Let's get into the post!

King, Alexandria. Musings of an Arthritic Artist. 2021.

Technically, there is nothing I dislike about being a writer. I love the process, and I actually find writing easier than drawing, for multiple reasons. However, that isn't what this post is about, so I won't be going into that. Despite the fact that I love everything about writing, I do have a list of favorites. So, let's get into my list.

1. Creating Characters

My favorite thing about writing is definitely creating characters. This seems simple, however this process takes me the longest. It has a lot of steps including, finding a character name that I feel fits, creating a character profile, creating a backstory, making character playlists, creating Pinterest boards based on their appearance and personality. 

There's a lot that goes into creating a character, especially when I'm the one creating one, but I love this process and I love creating new characters. I find it really fun and refreshing. It's never boring and it seems time-consuming, but I find it really enjoyable. 

2. Researching

I will be the first to admit that I am a master procrastinator. However, I will also be one of the first to admit that I love doing research. I love learning new things and I'm always curious about the world around me. I love reading about things and finding ways to incorporate that information into a story of some kind, no matter what it is. I find research to be incredibly fun, and it does cause me to lose track of time anytime I get invested in what I'm doing.

3. Line Editing

I've noticed that a lot of writers actually hate the editing process. It's actually one of my favorite parts of the writing process. I've always loved proofreading. In the workbooks I used when I was younger, there was quite a few proofreading exercises, and I remember that I would always want to do those first because I loved proofreading. I tend to edit as I go, which is a route a lot of writers recommend. 

This may be surprising to some writers, but I genuinely love this process. I love rereading my work and tweaking it to make it look as perfect as it possibly can.

4. Writing

I couldn't talk about my favorite things about being a writer and not include writing. You can't be a writer without writing. After all, it's in the name. I love to write. I didn't originally think I'd love it as much as I do, despite having story ideas circle in my head all the time as a child. Sometimes, writing didn't really cross my mind. However, it definitely does now.

5. Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is enjoyable as well, but this one is on the lower half of my list just because I find it to be one of the more difficult parts of writing. Worldbuilding has a lot of intricacies. It's very specific in a lot of cases, and it can also be very time-consuming. I love doing research, but sometimes the task of working on worldbuilding feels a bit stressful and daunting, though there will be times where I feel like doing nothing but worldbuilding.

For me, the want to do worldbuilding is situational and depends a lot on my mood. I could create characters all day, every day, no doubt in my mind, and never get bored of it. I can't say the same for worldbuilding.

6. Descriptive Writing

I have to say that descriptive writing is one of my least favorite parts about writing, just because I find it so incredibly difficult. I have mentioned to my family numerous times that I sometimes have a hard time defining words even though I know the definition. That feels a lot like when I'm trying to do descriptive writing. I know what I want to describe, but I don't quite know how to describe it. I find writing descriptions of things very difficult, especially when it comes to using specific adjectives. 

Because I can have so much difficulty with it, it is my least favorite part of writing. The descriptive writing I struggle most with is the description of the world around a character, whether that's a bedroom, a mountain, or even just a simple forest. Sometimes even describing clothing can be daunting. 

So there you go! Those are my favorite (and least favorite) things about being a writer. 

That's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it! 

Until next time, 

Lexi K🖌