on being a writer.

today i feel grateful for my job.

i love being a writer.
it surprises me all the time that i actually pulled it off.
the first thing i remember writing was a story about astronauts.
i think i was in 3rd grade.

then there were a lot of overly florid essays in high school,
about a thousand journal entries and rambling song lyrics,
a grueling year with a newspaper in college,
a few internships,
a couple years dabbling in the PR world,
several rejections and lucky breaks along the way,
and,
here i am.

in addition to the favorite up there in my blog header,

i also adore these quotes:

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Sylvia Plath

"You don't write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say." F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions." James Michener

"A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right."  John K. Hutchens

"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it." Anais Nin

"It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write." Sinclair Lewis

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." Richard Bach

dear everyone,

don't quit.

write your tail off,

read your brains out,

be ok with rejection,

and don't quit.