…in truth, I didn’t become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Wasn’t until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am.
– Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I’m working on what’s looking to me like a novel right now. (My “novels” often turn into “novellas” – I have a hard time writing long, monstrous stuff – but we’ll see.) Really struggling, but still writing. Still happy about it, but I understand the torment, Mr. Diaz. Thank you for this.
Eliza Victoria 