Do you want to write or do you want to be a writer?

“Maybe you write because you’re lonesome. You might stop once you fall in love. Remember we’re each just a self and the page is always there.

Maybe you write because you have a story to tell. I can’t imagine the Herculean act of learning to write for just one story, but some stories burn like that, I’ve heard tell.

Maybe you write because you’ve got a chip on your shoulder. The chip might be doing you a favor. You might want to polish it from time to time.

Maybe you write because you have to. Need is the best form of discipline. The page doesn’t need us. It never has and never will.”

With all the hoopla surrounding NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Writer Unboxed breaks down the difference of wanting to write and wanting to be a writer.

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Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She has a strong affinity for tattoos, otters, cat mystery books, and actual cats, but has mixed feelings about pants. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Women Who Submit, Entropy, Jaded Ibis Press, and Why There Are Words. You can find her on Twitter at @ArtsCollide.

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The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

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