Fifth Bullet: What time is it?
Here in my special writing office, it's about 3:00.
In the morning.
In fact, that's when my days generally begin, and my days begin with writing. Every day.
Look, if you want to ever be taken seriously, you have to take yourself seriously and realize that doing anything well, whether it's building a house, cooking breakfast, or writing novels, requires some degree of discipline and planning. Novels don't write themselves, and the writing part is the job part.
So, anyone who's task-oriented and disciplined can write a book. Anyone. It probably won't be a good one, but it can be done. I see a lot of task-oriented, disciplined works being produced across all genres these days. Not particularly good ones, but they're books.
Because anyone can learn to be a decent writer, especially in terms of the mechanics and technique of writing, if you stick to it and apply yourself. Occasionally, rarely, some writers will come along who possess so much innate talent that they just do it. Kind of like what Michael Grant commented yesterday.
He has a kind of opposite view on the thick skin/thin skin debate, but I like having no-nonsense, straightforward friends like Michael who make cutting through all the B.S. seem so easy. So, thanks for your, as usual, brilliant and funny comment, Michael.
It made me cry, though.
I'm a thin-skinned wuss.
