Write Despite

Writing is a lonely art. Our finished work will rarely be accepted with the enthusiasm we dreamed of while putting down that perfect chapter, or detailed fight scene. Accolades won't come easily. There's always going to be a better writer, a luckier writer, a more popular writer, a more decorated writer. Always. But if you love what you do, so much that you spend every minute thinking of it—staying up late or getting up early—then keep on and write despite. Believe in your work, perfect it. Someday, others will believe in it as well.

Man will surely fall into the abyss of judgement, hatred, vanity, gluttony, ignorance . . . without the written word. We have a great job to do, and are privileged. Blessed. So, when you get up early or stay up late, have to tell your family you're going to go rewrite that chapter again, miss parties, movies, sunlight—well, remember that it is a noble thing you do, and the world is better for it.