When I started writing, I believed it was a fairly glamorous life. In my head, I pictured that scene from Love Actually where Colin Firth is writing in a gorgeous little house in the French countryside. I also saw my life as the sort of rockstar lifestyle led by Richard Castle in the Castle TV show. I could sit and hammer out glorious stories at my leisure, take a day off to galavant around the world, and do glamorous things. I'm sure all writers have that sort of daydream of what they think like will be like as they write. Of course, very soon, you come to realize that real life is ABSOLUTELY nothing like your daydream! In fact, it's usually quite the opposite. Let me tell you the truth of what life is like for many writers: Sitting at a desk for 5 hours straight, trying to make the final rounds of edits just so the book will be ready by the deadline you have set for yourself, or to have it published before that author event you've signed up for. Spending hours writing blog posts and author interviews so that there will be traction for your book when it is finally launched. Putting in two or three hours every day, come Hell or high water, just to keep making slow progress on that book you're trying to complete. Skipping vacations or rarely getting a full day to rest because that "time off" is really the only time you get to write. If your friends and family come to visit, the best you can do it LIMIT the time you spend writing--you can never afford to stop altogether. Staring at the computer screen and re-reading that same passagefor the fifteenth time! Over the course of rough draft, first draft, second draft, and multiple rounds of editing before the final draft, you've read the same words far too many times. And that's just a fraction of what we, as authors, have to put up with! How much of that actually sounds like fun? Yes, there is DEFINITELY an element of "fun" to writing. After all, you get to see a creation spring forth from your mind and slowly come to life. It's like watching a child grow into a man or woman. But how many times did that child make you weep or want to pull out your hair in frustration? That, my friends, is the true life of a writer. And by God, I wouldn't give it up for anything!