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A short article on encouraging writers. This article was published in 2004 by Writer's Gallery.

sritten by:
Naomi Hyatt

She sits on her white satin sofa wearing white silk pajamas. Her hair is elegantly pulled back with wisps escaping to perfectly frame her perfectly and tastefully made-up face. You can hear a charming giggle as she lays a perfectly manicured hand against her chest.

"Not long," she says. "It only took me two months to get it to my agent. He is such a cad sometimes, because he is so impatient for my work. But you can't rush creativity."
The story above is something a person might expect to see on a 20/20 interview. (The glamour, the writer among the pretty people of the world, so rich, so perfect.) Can you dream yourself into this fantasy? Are you the woman on the sofa, young and beautiful, or dream of seeing yourself parked on a sofa next to Jay Leno, while some guy like Harrison Ford waits beside you to hear your antidotes to Leno's well thought out chatter?
Ask yourself this question? "Why not? What makes those writers any different than I am?"
Think back to the story: A white Persian cat jumps up beside the woman. Its fur is so white that you almost miss the diamond collar that you know is real. The woman on the sofa lets the cat cuddle in her lap.
She smiles. "I bought Felicia her collar with part of the advance."
An unseen interviewer asks, "So how big was your advance?"
"Oh, just a few pennies really."
She smiles, again. Her smile is almost as costly as the cat's collar.
"I read that you sold your last book for a million and a half," says the interviewer.
"Oh, that's because it was just a republication of an earlier book. This book is more elaborate, so I can expect decent money with this one."
Consider these excuses that many unpublished authors tell themselves:

Most writers are more educated than I am.
Some best-selling authors hold master's degrees in English, Education, English Education, and Journalism. But, writers are really a diverse people. Some are doctors, lawyers, teachers, while others are scuba divers, housewives, bus drivers, high school dropouts, and even migrant workers.

Writers are part of the pretty people, just like in the example above.
There are some pretty people out there and a few who have used the money generated from their books to make them "perfect." Cosmetic surgeons still rake in the bucks, but there are also the average Joes who are famous authors.
The first time I saw Stephen King, I thought, Geez, he looks like

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