What is second language acquisition like from the learner's perspective? I examined published autobiographies authored by those who have documented their language learning journeys. One theme that recurred across the texts was Writing; a sub-theme was Writing life 1 in language 2. Some narrativists/learners described the dissonance, while others described the relief they felt when writing about events in a language other than the language in which those events occurred. Insights about writing provided by the learners/narrativists could illuminate both second language acquisition (SLA) theory and SLA pedagogy.