Brought to you by someone still trying to figure it out Herself…

If you haven’t realized it yet, writing is kinda hard. You’re not just searching for YES’s in a haystack of proverbial NO’s… you’re clawing through rubble at the base of Mount Doom. With your bare hands. Armed with nothing but your laptop, and copious amounts of sheer grit. And even if you do manage to find one, shining gem of a YES hidden between the crags, the journey still isn’t over. There will inevitably be another peak behind that one to climb… and behind that… and so on and so forth until forever. The struggle is real, and it never ends! As one of my friends once joked, “Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.” At which point I laughed. And then cried. Because: it’s true.

This is not a journey for the faint of heart. It’s as dangerous and uncertain as that winding road Frodo Baggins once stepped out onto. It’s filled with rivers of tears, vast, dark plains of uncertainty, and many, MANY more low valleys than soaring peaks. But is it worth it?

Absolutely.

And the good news is, you don’t have to do it alone. My advice is to learn as much as you can from all the wise, sagely Gandalf’s along your way—or in my case, just a girl who’s traveled enough of those dark valleys to have picked up a thing or two about avoiding hidden Balrogs. Take ‘em if you want. Pocket ‘em. Use ‘em. Throw ‘em back if you like. But any which way your path takes you, from one writer to another, I wish you the very best of luck on your journey.

XO, Julie