The thing about being a writer

I am forced to be more than just a writer.

I am an artist

I must paint the scenes in my mind

Sculpt the world

Sketch out characters to the smallest detail.

I am an animator

Breathing life into everything.

I am to words as Prometheus was to clay.

I am an architect

Building homes, hideouts, palaces, cathedrals

And everything in between.

My tools

Paragraphs, sentences.

The thing about being a writer

I learn to be so much more

I am both child and parent

Teacher and student

Prisoner and warden

Betrayer and the betrayed.

I am a spy, researcher, and detective.

I am a warrior and a soldier.

I’ve become every person who has ever existed

And someone you never knew.

I am a sorcerer

Turning ink and paper into flesh and bone.

My magic words

Are ones we hear every day.

My spells make me equal parts Creator

And Destroyer.

I have lived every life

And snuffed out all of them.

I have felt every emotion

And know what it is to not feel any.

I know what it takes to heal

And to harm.

I build my audience a world

Whilst also breaking down theirs.

The thing about being a writer

I am free to be so much more.