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Goodreads asked Michael W. Shaw:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Michael W. Shaw As soon as you say that you are labeling yourself, and setting up a whole bunch of expectations and creating a persona. You risk a lot of ego, and then you may not be a good writer on account of it.

So the best thing about being a writer for me is that I’ve given myself permission to write, and it’s unconditional. I don’t measure myself by books written or sold.

There’s a good book on this called The Right to Write, by Julia Cameron. She explains a lot of it in detail, how we are stifled with the pressure of writing perfectly or not at all. Once you allow yourself to write for the sheer joy of it, because you love it, because you have to do it, because it’s like breathing, then that’s the best thing about being a writer.

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