On Friday morning, when I walked into my English class, I found that a group of my classmates were discussing John Green and his novel "Paper Towns."

They were discussing a specific quote from the book and how it related to the reading we did for English. They weren't wrong, when I was reading it, I also thought about "Paper Towns."

They then discussed Green ( who is basically a saint in my book ) and the things that he has done in his writing that they don't agree with. Then, one of the people in my class talked about how if he was born a couple decades earlier, he would have been one of those writers clacking on a typewriter, living the glorious life.

And I was severely pissed off.

Here's why.

I've been a writer since 4th grade, when I wrote a short story about picking out my favorite guitar, Bob, for the first time. My teacher, Mrs. Crocker, liked my story so much that she had me change it into an actual book, which I promptly made in a week, sitting at the back of the class sewing together two pieces of cardboard to make an actual book while the rest of the class was learning how to write summaries.

Since then, I have written six novels and more unfinished manuscripts than I care to admit. I have felt what it means to be a writer, and the stigma of what its means to be a writer.

There are these images of these whimsical cafes where the music is always right and the baristas give you an extra shot without you having to ask, and then there's the beautiful phrase, "the usual?"

Sorry to burst your bubble world, that is not what being a writer is like.

There's a quote from Ernest Hemingway that I've always loved, and even have above my writer's desk. It's, "There is nothing to writing. All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Seriously, that's what it's like. And it never gets any easier.

Even after six novels, only two days ago I was lying face down on my bed listening to James Bay on repeat questioning all the existential things in the world and why, oh why, have I chosen this painful, horrible thing to be my hobby?

But I didn't choose it.

It chose me.

And that's where it's all worth it in the end. It's hard, but we write because we have something to say, and we want to say it well.

Being a writer is not drinking copious amounts of coffee while laughing with your writer friends and pushing up your hipster glasses. Writing is not not taking a shower for five days and refusing to leave your room except to go and brew yet another pot of coffee and dreaming of someday, just someday, someone at Harper Collins notices you.

It's a career for dreamers with tough skin and an even tougher stomach.

It's hard and most often it's not fun, so why do we do it?

Because when that one person, whoever they are, looks at you and tells you that your story helped them in any which way, it is worth all the flood, tears and migraines in the world.