by K.M. Weiland on Helping Writers become Authors, site:

If life is a journey and writing is a lifestyle, then we know writing itself is not a destination but a discovery. Some of the stages of being a writer are momentous, life-changing, and unforgettable. (Outlines, story structure, and character arcs were like that for me.) Other discoveries blur past, lost in the hustle and grunt of our forward momentum. But they’re every bit as formative and important.

This spring, I find myself at what feels like a mountain peak within my writing journey. It isn’t the final peak by any means. I can see many a misty mountain looming in the distance. But it has provided one of those rare moments in the writing journey that allow the writer to turn back and look down upon the road so far—to realize I have grown, I am not the same writer I was when I started. Indeed, I’m not even close to being the same person.

That’s exciting. Even better, it’s encouraging, because it means the boulders we all trip over, the mosquitoes we all have to swat, the bears we sometimes have to run from—they don’t last forever.