It's Not Easy to Be A Novelist

1. You get distracted constantly, by real life, by crises, by other interests and activities, by new ideas and projects
2. There's no one breathing on your neck (well, usually, unless you have a deadline or an agent asking for something) pushing you to finish
3. You're not always inspired, and you fear you'll write crap
4. When you write "crap," you think you're a lousy write
5. When you think you're a lousy writer, you don't want to write anymore
6. There's not many people to talk to about your work -- and sometimes you can't even talk about your work because the project is supposed to be a "secret"
7. When you do talk about your work, people either a) don't understand, b) don't care, or c) think you're bragging about being a novelist
8. You take your stories/work too seriously
9. There's always something who think they can do better than you in writing YOUR story (agent, editor, beta readers, other writers)
10. It's by and large a lonely profession with little social support
11. There's no immediate reward, applause, payoff, or appreciation -- sometimes there's none at all, only criticism
12. It really is work