If You Could Look Into A Crystal Ball

We made a trek to my in-laws yesterday and had a wonderful visit. Ava loves (as we all do) to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and I appreciate their quiet little haven in New York. Not only relaxing but the food is good, and a hack writer like me can get some work done. On the way, I brought the nearly-finished BEAT to a PULP: ROUND TWO to continue polishing it into a fine gem. We've probably worked harder on this project than any other, and while going through the manuscript during the drive, it brought me back to a question a grizzled writer once asked me in the south of France* ...

Sonny, if you could look into a crystal ball and see that you would never become a financial success as a writer, would you still do it?"

The young David muttered, "Yes," to which he quickly replied, "Then you're already a success, kid."

And over the past few months as I have juggled the day job, a mother with dementia, fatherhood, and a number of other responsibilities, I've still reached for the ROUND TWO manuscript, working hard toward that ultimate goal even if for only a few stolen moments after work or while on a trip to visit relatives. It would be nice if ROUND TWO becomes a runaway smash and the darling of the critics, but, honest to Betsy, it doesn't matter how much it sells because the honor of publishing the legends among its pages has already made me a wealthy man in a way that other idealists will surely understand.

So for the struggling writers out there: If you could look into a crystal ball and see that you would never become a financial success as a writer, would you still do it? Feel free to say no as many folks have when I've asked them this question.

*The French writer was created for dramatic purposes. The one and only time I was in France, I got into a fight with some Hungarian acrobats. But that's a story for another day.