Goodreads question #5: What is the best thing about being a writer?

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Victor D. Lopez Freedom. We can write about the world as it is, or as we would like it to be. We can choose to describe, catalog, and explain the rules of an orderly universe or scatter them to the wind and reorder the world in any internally consistent system that our minds can devise where magic works, aliens live among us, ghosts interact with the living, faster than light travel is possible, and justice prevails. Best of all, we can share our vision with the world and connect with like-minded strangers who are willing to come along for the ride. We can entertain, frighten, stimulate, enlighten, and move readers with our words as they share for a time our version of reality and expand our vision with their own imagination, breathing life to the characters we create, providing depth, color, texture well beyond our words in a collaboration of our joined imaginations.

Freedom. Joy. The ability to transcend the limitations of the body and the frailty and short-lived nature of the flesh. The privilege to touch others and bring them into our imaginary worlds. That is what is best about being a writer for me. I will never be a best selling author. My writing, at least my fiction and poetry, will never bring me the tangible rewards that could justify the time and effort I devote to my craft. The intangible rewards, however, are truly priceless.