In July I’ll be teaching at the Midwest Writers’ Workshop. Recently they asked me a few questions for their newsletter. Here’s one:

Since you are an author and an editor, what do you see as the common traps for aspiring writers?

I’ll give you one that’s been on my mind lately: overestimating the amount of talent it takes to write a book, and underestimating the time and effort and sheer persistence that it takes.

(This miscalculation isn’t exclusive to the writing world, by the way. See also this article with a very explain-y title: “People Underestimate the Value of Persistence for Creative Performance”)

Here’s a weird disconnect. If you tell people that it takes ten years of devoted work to reach mastery of a skill—not greatness, but mere mastery—they will nod and say, Right, that makes sense. But if you tell them that means it could very well take them ten years or more to write a novel, no matter how good their idea is . . . well, you can see the despair on their face.

But the thing is, you’re allowed to enjoy those ten years (or however long it takes). Actually, you better enjoy it. If you find that you don’t actually like writing all that much—if you’d rather be a person with a book than a person who writes—hit the eject button early and save yourself a ton of suffering.