Dale Herbest posted this over there and I thought I'd answer it here…
I was reading one of those rejection essays on your blog and you mentioned that the main reason you became a writer was because it was (in your opinion) one of the few things you could potentially be good at. Was that the only reason for choosing your vocation? Does any personal joy or pleasure come from it or could it be seen like an addiction to a certain extent; you put words on the page simply because you have the need to?
Oh, no. I love writing. I'm doing some of it right this second. In fact, I never understood that famous quote from Dorothy Parker about how she hated writing but loved having written. I don't get why any human being would choose a profession that they hated doing.
I suppose I could understand it if the profession promised to be incredibly lucrative and stable…but if you're smart enough to become a successful writer, you're smart enough to know that very few writers make tons o' bucks and that the work is not easy to come by. Even if writing comes easy to you, selling it almost never does.
It's one of those professions where you can make a lotta dough but the odds are against it. If money is your main objective, you don't become a writer. You get into some other line of work.
Still, I love it enough that every morning, I write something within ten minutes of awakening. I write something just before bed. I write lots of things in-between. I certainly have not been doing this blog — which once I post this will have 22,780 posts on it — because I thought there was money to be made or because I didn't like writing. I do it because I enjoy it.
Now, that may have something to do with the fact that I think I do it decently. It would be no fun to have to get up each day and do something that you didn't think you were doing well, especially since that would lead to a lot of failure and stress and angst. I could write another 22,780 posts listing professions that would cause me to feel that way.
But even if I won the Powerball tomorrow and never had to worry about income for the rest of my life, I'd still write every day. In fact, I'll let you in on a secret: I'm writing at this very moment. Even as I type this, I'm writing…and I'm not even getting paid for it. If you want to call it an addiction, fine. I'd call it doing something I love.