In my earlier years, I used to fantasize about the writing life. How cool it would be to work fulltime as a writer of novels. Mostly it involved a phone call telling me a publisher loved my book and wanted to pay me tons of money for it (2010 update: HA HA HA!) 

Then a while back I started to think that the present version of The Writing Life, wherein I glue my butt to the seat and work, may be the best part. On the days when I become immersed in my story, grateful for the muse, wondering if an actual Spiritual Entity is sending me messages thru my flying fingers – maybe this is the best part, and I should enjoy it because WHEN I sell my ms, a lot of non-writing work (querying, editing, rewrites, marketing) will ensue. I may no longer levitate above the highest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy.

And to that point, I loved this post by Lev Rafael, The Seven Things Writing Professors Never Tell You. Even though he’s a really successful writer, he’s had his share of awful moments (see #2 and #3 of his post). So now I’m thinking, if it can happen to him and he still walks away with a smile, I guess I can handle it, too. Thanks to Jane Friedman for sharing.