Long, Sleepless Nights: What a Writer Does When They Can't Sleep

If you're a writer, just like I am, then you know what it's like to not be able to sleep most nights because you have many thoughts running through your head. A majority of those thoughts are new ideas for stories you want to write, or for a new chapter in one that you are already writing. You just can't relax until you have all your ideas written down. Whether it be on paper, a computer, or heck, even on a napkin, when inspiration strikes, you have to tie a rope around it and pull it towards you, or else it will go somewhere else and you will never see it again—which is a depressing thought, yes, but it happens to the best of us.

That's exactly what happened to me last night. Two thirty AM, to be exact. I was sound asleep (or at least trying to act like I was) and I had so many ideas running through my head, and I just couldn't get comfortable until I wrote those thoughts down, so I quickly grabbed my phone, the bright light of the screen blinding me for a few seconds until my eyes adjusted, and I started typing away at what I had come up with.

Sometimes, when you write something the day or night before, you read it the next day and think, What on Earth was I thinking when I wrote this down? this is a horrible idea! But on rare occasions, you write something absolutely amazing and you feel so good about yourself and that you actually accomplished writing something, which is a big thing if you have had writer's block for a very, very long time. It's a miracle! You just feel like shouting from the rooftops, screaming at the top of your lungs: "I actually wrote something!" Then you hear people all over the neighborhood telling you to be quiet and you go back inside and sulk because someone yelled at you.

I'm still starting out as a writer, and I have had writer's block for a very long time; but when I write something, I feel like I actually did something amazing. It's the greatest feeling in the world, being able to escape to another world, whether it is a world you create on your own or one that someone else with the same passion as you came up with.

If you are starting out as a writer, whether it be a start for a job or career or just a hobby, I want you to listen to what I am about to say. Don't EVER let anyone tell you that writing isn't something you can be proud of or can make a living from, because you can make a living from it AND it is definitely something to be proud of. The words you write down are the words you came up with yourself—words that came from your mind, and most of all, your heart. Your writing reflects who you are on the inside, and if no one can accept that, then those people aren't people worth having in your life. Don't listen to the naysayers. They don't know what joy comes from writing. They get stuck here in the real world while we as writers get to go into all kinds of new worlds, meet new people, and learn new things! Don't ever be put down because someone doesn't like what you enjoy. It shouldn't matter what others think of what you love to do. All that matters is that it makes you happy and you can see yourself doing it for a very long time.

Stay true to yourself and don't ever give up on your dreams, whatever those dreams are. Embrace them and reach the goals of accomplishing those dreams. You'll feel better in the long run if you meet those goals and stay true to who you are. You are an amazing person, writer or not. You are worth so much and you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. The only person who can keep you from accomplishing anything...is you. Follow your heart and you'll go places. I promise you that. Now go and live your dreams, you amazing person, you!