When You Just Don't Know What the Hell...

Unless your brain is the ultimate amalgamation of Albert Einstein, Julius Caesar, Amelia Earhart, William Shakespeare, Martha Stewart, the Mythbusters, and Alton Brown, chances are you'll have to do some research on whatever story it is you're writing. The topic of research is quite polarizing in and of itself. A lot of authors don't do a lick of it until they're working on their second or even third drafts, almost as if the hard facts are the candles on a birthday cake. Other people spend months researching their topics ahead of time, and it continues throughout the story as well as after.

As I say about most of these issues, neither approach is wrong so long as it isn't inhibiting you from actually writing the story. Research is a tantalizing distraction, especially in the age of the internet, when clicking one link will inadvertently lead to down a long, mentally masturbatory path to lost productivity.

Still, most writers just don't feel comfortable elaborating on unfamiliar subjects (even if it's only temporary), while others will happily make up whatever they don't know and fix the mistakes later. I don't quite fit either mold. For one thing, I tend to write about things I take an active interest in, or topics subjective enough that they don't require a ton of research (i.e. forensic crime stories, hard science fiction, period pieces). However, even the most nebulous stories will often need a little bit of a factcheck. For instance, in my work-in-progress, my main character is a mail carrier. I happen to know very little about what's involved "behind the scenes" at a typical post office, so that requires a little bit of digging. Also, I'm currently participating in NaNoWriMo with an urban fantasy story that takes place in San Francisco. It just so happens that I have never been to San Francisco. This would naturally require me to look a few things up. Or take a weekend trip down to the Bay Area (if only!). For both of these stories, it has been easy enough to make educated guesses on the unknown, but I have allotted some time for light research. The rest will have to come later, once the story is done. For one thing, I don't want to spend hours researching something that may very well end up cut from the story. For another, the story is the most important thing. The best research is often in the background.

Still, aside from trips to the library, what are some of the best ways to learn about the architecture from Victorian London so you can accurately describe the setting of your dark Dickensian satire. Perhaps you're a little unsure about the principles of string theory for its use in your inter-dimensional dystopian thriller. How do boilers work so you can craft the ultimate vehicle for your steampunk masterpiece? Where does Alcatraz Island lie in relation to Angel Island?

These days, most of these answers can be found online, thanks to those folks who were nerdy enough or worldly enough to learn the information we need and put it up on a website. Here is a brief list if sites I (and other writers) will check when they are looking to add that particular flavor and realism to their stories that can only come from expertise:

1. Wikipedia: This is a standard site, of course, and I shouldn't even have to list it here. There isn't much you can't learn about here. However, since inaccurate research can be just as bad as no research at all (depending on your story), it is best to only use this site for non-controversial items. In other words, avoid biographical information on people who recently took a trip through the America's media sphincter. Especially if half of the country hates them. Otherwise, historical figures, city or country history and demographics, weapons, well-established scientific theories, most medical disorders, and cultural or sexual practices are often safe bets here. Otherwise you may want to corroborate what you find from other sources just to be safe.

2. Google: And I don't just mean the search engine, which requires just as much scrutiny as Wikipedia does, but I mean some of their other products. Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Street View (which is part of Google Maps) are some of the most invaluable tools for learning about geographical locations. Street View in particular is incredible, because it literally takes you up and down the streets in a first-person view, as if you were riding along in a car. Granted, this is not available yet in all areas of the country, but it's spreading. It was not only able to see what the route to the Golden Gate Bridge looked like coming north on Hwy 101, I was also able to completely explore Topeka, KS for another story, as well as an assortment of other small towns throughout the plains states. Most of us can't afford to travel directly to the places where our stories take place, and if you are getting tired of setting all of your stories in the place you live, then Google Street View is the next best thing. You don't have to write about everything you see, but you can get a general feel for the place and let it indirectly influence the tone of your writing.

3. How Stuff Works: This site is another plethora of knowledge, and it isn't only for mechanical or chemical stuff. You can learn about everything from strange medical diagnoses to internal combustion engines to the Mayan calandar. Very comprehensive and reader-friendly, you can spend hours on this site, even when you're not researching. Assuming you're as nerdy as I am, anyway.

4. Industry websites/blogs: If you are writing a story about filmmaking, a political campaign, or a particular sport, chances are somebody has a blog about it. This can be almost as good as conducting an interview. A friend of mine is currently writing a story about hockey, and his time spent reading player blogs taught him a lot about the culture of the sport, and he's already a big fan. When I was writing a story about a political strategist, I spent a lot of time on political activist message boards that were full of people who worked on campaigns. They had video, pictures, and knew a lot about policy and the inner-workings of campaigns that I never would have found through traditional media.

5. YouTube: Although this is one of the biggest timesuckers known to man (other than Facebook, of course), it can be a valuable resource of visual information. For instance, when I was doing some light research on mail carriers, I was able to find several videos (mostly local news stories) that were human interest stories for small-town mailmen. That provided anecdotal information as well as the visuals I needed. It was almost as good as shadowing someone. Just make sure to leave before you click on the link of the latest awesome cat video.

6. Thesaurus.com: I avoid using a thesaurus 95% of the time, but sometimes the word you need just isn't there at all. You're having a brainfart or you're trying to write on two hours of sleep or a hangover, or maybe you're trying to be alliterative and can't think of any words that mean "awesome" that begin with the letter "h." In some cases, you've already used the same rudimentary word three times on the same page and you need something different! That, in my opinion, is what a thesaurus is for. Don't dig deep into one looking for something that you think will impress your readers with your prodigious patois. It has the effect of going to the dentist and having only one of your teeth cleaned and bleached while the rest are left yellow.

Just Ask: Don't be afraid to make phonecalls or send a personal email to the experts. Identify yourself as a writer doing research for a novel, and that you'd love their unique input or--if they had the time or the ability--a tour or a chance to follow them around for the day and observe. You will be amazed that people are not only willing to give you their input, but are also enthusiastic about it. According to many potential experts I've spoken to about this, a lot of them secretly hope they'll get to be a character in your story. They think there is a cool mystique about the craft and love having a hand in it. If you happen to have friends who are knowledgeable in your particular subject, you might also ask if they would want to read your story and mark any elements that are too fantastical to convince even laypeople.

There are many ways to make your story rich with detail and give it an air of authenticity that, along with your skills at weaving fiction and suspending readers' disbelief, will make it an unforgettable read. The key is in time management. Don't get hung up for two hours on an otherwise inconsequential detail. Your job is to focus on your story, and 99% of the time that's what your readers will care about most, especially if it's fiction you're telling. Don't be afraid to take liberties either. So maybe there isn't really a deli on the corner of 35th and Main in New York City. Hell, maybe there isn't even a 35th and Main intersection. In your story there is. It's called taking creative license. You may offend a few New Yorkers, but I think they're pretty well used to it by now. As long as the detail in queston isn't preposterous (like polar bears in the South Pole), you're good.

Curious About How to Edit Yourself?

I wrote a guest blog at my dear friend and colleague Ian Healy's website about how to self-edit your manuscript if hiring a professional is not an option for you.

Check it out!

You might also become a member of Ian's page while you're there. He's a great source of knowledge about the writing business and the craft itself, and he makes a great addition to any writer's network.

Do Editors Read for Pleasure?

A friend of mine asked me the other day what it's like for me to read books as an editor. Is it possible to turn off the editor's switch, even for my old favorites? Can I even give Stephen King (my favorite writer) a pass for the occasional laborious sentence, lagging plot line, or adverb when I've all but trained my brain to "search and destroy" these things when possible in people's manuscripts?

The answers here are not simple. In the question of whether or not I can turn off the editor's switch when I read for pleasure, the answer is no. I've never been able to disable that particular feature of my brain, which is why I guess I'm well-suited to be an editor in the first place. Unfortunately, it does make me an incredibly s..l..o..w reader, at least compared to some. Unless it's a very light read (like Harry Potter), I tend to take an average of 2 weeks to finish a long book (if I'm only reading before bed).

The act of reading and editing is almost synesthetic for me, in that I can not only "hear" the words in my head, but I can also taste them. Good words taste like really smooth milk chocolate. Bad words taste like copper shavings. Those senses have only sharpened more since officially donning the editor's cap.

But that doesn't mean I don't still take pleasure from reading. While I sometimes wish my brain would quit flagging instances of passive voice in an otherwise great novel or finding more economical ways to express something that someone wrote 30 years ago, it's a valuable feature to have when you come across some prose or a description that exhibits the genius that made that author successful in the first place. In fact, such discoveries not only make me exuberant, but they also fuel my desire to create. And those discoveries happen far more often than the "I'd have done this differently" ones, thankfully. Either way, it keeps my mind sharp.

Reading for pleasure must not die with the job of editing anymore than it can for writing. After all, performing an edit is a lot more than dotting i's and repairing comma splices. It's a job similar to that of a record producer, only instead of manipulating tracks of music to produce a coherent and pleasing sound, you're manipulating words to the same end. And you can't do something like that very well if you don't have a deep pool of other material from which to draw your knowledge and inspiration. If you want to go beyond the objective world of a copywriter and into the more artistic realm of line editing, you have to read a lot more than the manuscripts people send to you. And you have to read more than just your prefered genre--fiction and non-fiction. Having a library card or a used bookstore nearby makes this easier. It's also not a bad idea to watch a lot of movies. The mediums are different, but they are great for providing visual context.

On my sidebar here, you will see my We Read gadget, which shows you the current books in my reading queue. I just finished Watership Down by Richard Adams, and I'm currently working on The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. These are two vastly different books. One is an adventure tale about a group of anthropomorphized rabbits, and the other is the proto-feministic story of Dinah (from the Bible's book of Genesis), and her life as a midwife and daughter of Jacob. Both books could not be more different, and yet they share a similar thread of beautiful and great storytelling, and I've learned a lot from both that I hope to apply to my abilities as a writer as well as my knowledge as an editor.

The saying is old, but it's more true now (especially for me) than it ever was: Reading is Fundamental. Especially if you want to build your life on words. It might not be the relaxing exercise that it is for a lot of people who don't think about a lot of the intracies and nuances of the language, but it never has been simple for me. If anything, all of the voracious reading I've done from age 9 or so (when I started reading novels) up to now and beyond has been laying the groundwork for what I am doing now: editing your stories and writing my own.

Announcing...

Are you a student? Do you know students? This is for you:

On Not Writing Like Lot's Wife

Last night, I set a healthy goal for myself to finish my novel in progress, Scarlet Letters: The Tale of the Vampire Mailman, before my 30th birthday. I figured out of all the goals I intended to accomplish before that milestone year (losing all my excess weight, having a graduate degree, being utterly and disgustingly rich and famous), this is one I could actually do. After all, the story is still very much at the forefront of my mind. I have faith in the idea and the characters, and I believe that our culture is in desperate need of a story that I could only describe as "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Vampires meets Truckloads of Twilight Hate Mail."

Sadly, I've allowed internal forces to slow me down over the last month and a half. One of those things was disorganization, which I lamented in my last post. There are other things, however, that are throwing proverbial banana peels into my Path to Novel Completion. One of them is my tendency to go back and re-read previous chapters and edit them before proceeding with the rest of the story.

I know there are a lot of authors who do this. Some of them are even seasoned pros. Elmore Leonard, for instance, confesses that he doesn't do second drafts. Obviously that works for him, because Leonard is a fantastic writer and he has written over 40 books and a dozen or so screenplays. He's also a minimalist who tells fast-paced crime and suspense stories that don't stop long enough to admire the scenery. I think his writing style is served well by such an approach. By the way, his work is a master class in dialogue, and I highly recommend his books on that basis alone.

At any rate, if you haven't written 40 books (or can't even finish your first one one), and you haven't had an atom's worth of the success Leonard has had over the decades, editing while you write is likely not a good practice for you. Guys like Leonard are seasoned marathon runners while the rest of us are still trying to get our wide asses up off the couch. The more you stop and go back and look at what you've written before moving onto the new stuff, chances are you'll still be wearing a dent into your sofa this time next year.

So why do some people do this? Why do we need to go back and re-read our words before making new ones? Did they somehow change from the time we wrote them and closed the document to when we opened it again the next day? Why is it that we sit and marvel over what we already did instead of continuing to forge the trail into new territory? What are we afraid of, exactly?

I can only answer for myself, but I'll discuss my experiences:

I sometimes do it when I've deviated from the original plot idea (after all, I'm really making it up as I go along), and I feel like I can't move forward unless I stitch up the hole I opened in the preceding chapter. I don't think there's much wrong in that. I am sure that this is very much behind Leonard's methods. You just have to make sure you make the fix and get back to work. If you don't feel you can do this and get back on track, make a note in a pad next to your keyboard that says, "Make sure John Smith doesn't eat the cheese before he kills his mother," and carry on.

Other times, I've genuinely forgotten what I've written. This happens if I miss a few days of writing. But then again, you should really only need to read the last couple pages to get the idea back. But those are only technical reasons, and they don't get to the emotional core of why I would do this.

The real reason is because my confidence as a writer is so low sometimes that the only way I can jack it back up to write another chapter is to remind myself of what I've already accomplished. This is distinctly different from what Elmore Leonard does. Someone who writes as much as he does is not suffering from a confidence problem. He just wants to get the damn thing done. In his mind, if he can fix the kinks as he goes, then he can write "The End" and throw the manuscript at his editors and have them buff it to a high shine. But most of us don't have that knack (or luxury, for that matter).

It's the same reason we get mired in research without writing a single word. It's the same reason we get so concerned about "having the story exactly as we want it" before it's even started. We are distracting ourselves from the ultimate task at hand (writing) by looking back, because it's easier than looking ahead and moving into the unknown. A lot of it is simple procrastination, but we're also worried we're going to screw it all up and that we're going to have *gasp* go back and fix it later! No, it's much safer to just keep patting ourselves on the backs for goals long accomplished than to take a plunge and just do the damn deed and get it done.

It's a very bad routine to fall into. Especially for a fledgling author. The line between a simple habit and something far more pathological is when it starts to have a severe or negative impact on your life and your ability to function. If you can rewrite your first draft as you go and still manage to finish your books, then you don't have a problem. If, however, the practice is preventing you from writing new material, then maybe it's time for a change. If you're spending most of your time reminding yourself, "Hey, I am a writer, by god! I can do this! But first, let's look at the awesome stuff I wrote yesterday!" before you can even get started on your daily word or page quota, you'll likely end up exhausted with the idea of your story before it's even half finished, and all because you spent your energy on retrospectives rather than on completion.

Today, I forged ahead with my story knowing very well that there are existing plot holes and extraneous elements that I need to delete or change down the road. There are some continuity issues too, and perhaps some stilted dialogue, redundancies, and some parts that just don't make sense in the context of my characters because I was writing on a bad day. However, I have relinquished my responsibility over having to fix those things right now, and it feels good. What I am doing is not only OK, but it is standard practice for the majority of writers out there. At this point, I will be happy being able to put "The End" on something longer than 25,000 words (even if it needs additional work). That is my goal. I will take all of the energy I saved from NOT re-reading my unfinished book and put it toward polishing and revising a complete novel (after it's had about two months to mellow, of course).

I am not Elmore Leonard; most of us aren't. The ones who spend the most time looking back are really just pillars of salt--rooted to one spot and gazing over their backs at a burning city--incapable of moving forward.

A Novel Way to Stay Organized

Any novelist knows that between juggling multiple plot lines, characters, settings, backstories, and research, writing a book is a lengthy and complex endeavor that can easily eat up 3 months to several years of your life. And everybody who writes stories will tell you that they have a specific method to their magic (or madness, as it were).

Some create story notes with enough pages to rival the current health care legislation, complete with colored tabs and paperclips, with information filled from margin to margin about everything from fictitious maps to a character's favorite dessert to his or her entire family tree.

Others fly completely by the seats of their pants and somehow manage to keep every scrap of information about their characters, settings, and plots jammed inside their heads, without even using so much as a Post-It note to catch the overflow. I was this way when I was younger, but as I've aged, I've realized that I've fried far too many of my neurons to keep it up. Still, that doesn't mean I've enrolled at the Academy of Anal Retentiveness. I've only moved on to haphazard notepads with sometimes barely legible scribbles about a new plot idea or character motivation that may or may not be relevant by the time I get around to using it.

The notes or no-notes methods aren't wrong, at least objectively. It only becomes that way if either of them prevent you from actually writing or finishing your story. On the one hand, so many people get caught up in research before writing that they really don't ever get around to beginning a single chapter. It's as if what they're really doing is stalling. On the other end of the spectrum, if you're just living for the moment and writing like you're in permanent NaNoWriMo mode, you stand a really good chance of getting tangled up or lost in your own plot (depending on how complex your story is), and you will either end up writing something very confusing, or you will become fatigued and frustrated and give up entirely.

I was in the latter camp.

If you've ever seen my kitchen, my desk, my bathroom closet, my makeup bag, my old class notes, my computer hard drive, and my story notes, you would see a haphazard set of sandbags just barely holding back a destructive flood of chaos. And for the most part, I'm fine with this. I'm one of those people who say, "it may look like a mess to you, but I know where everything is." But I also say just as often, "Where the heck are my car keys?" So my instincts are not always in my best interests. They're really just dumb habits that I'm too lazy to change.

I've attempted writing five or so novels and they are all at varying stages of completion, but I've noticed a pattern: almost all of them ended up defeating me when the deluge of information ended up outweighing my capacity to keep track of it all. And like a waitress with an overloaded tray, I ended up dropping the damn thing and walking away from the whole mess in disgust.

The problem is, I am not--nor will I ever be--a "plotter." And I REALLY hate outlining a story that I haven't started writing yet. In my opinion, any story that starts out with a perfect template ends up reading like one, and there is something mechanical and dull about that kind of fiction. I truly believe in the organic process of story building. I start with a glimmer, a shady concept. Sometimes I already know the ending, but it's all the middle parts that need to be developed as I go, and I love how it surprises me with its twists and turns along the way. For me, writing a story--long or short--is like a great treasure hunt or an archeological dig. At least when the story is good.

Still, I have conceded that I need a way to organize the monster as it grows, and chicken scratch on mini yellow legal pads was ceasing to be effective. With this current story, it had reached the point to where I wasn't even sure where my plot was heading. And I still didn't have a very clear picture of who these people were yet. Not only that, I was developing two subplots whose directions were nebulous at best. Compounding that, I had taken it upon myself to rewrite vampire mythology as I know it, something that in itself should require its own 3-ring binder. It was frustrating, and I knew that after a few more days of this, I'd end up hearing that familiar siren call urging me to just walk away and start something new. There was absolutely no way I was going to let that happen again.

Enter yWriter.

What is yWriter, you ask?

Well, if you click on one of those links there and read about it and watch the online tutorial, you will find that it is perhaps one of the most ingenious pieces of story writing software around. I'd seen yWriter before, but back then I still didn't think I needed it. Of course, just ask my husband and he'll tell you I'm one of the hardest converts you'll ever come across for new software. I don't like things too complicated (even if it would make things LESS complicated, if you can dig it), and I don't require an app for every purpose. However, after trying and failing to finish 5 novels due to a basic lack of organization, I thought that enough was enough.

What makes yWriter more effective than a simple notebook? Simple. It's all about structure. It's a fully-formatted, intuitive interface with neat little slots just waiting for you to fill in all of your pertinent information. You can create complete character lists that include descriptions, biographical information, notes, and even pictures if you were feeling so artistically inclined. You can do the same for all of your setting information as well. Write about your fictional towns/cities, or particular settings within those places, like the town pub where everyone gathers during the zombie apocalypse.

But perhaps the most brilliant thing about yWriter is that you list each of your chapters, and then go in and write summaries for each one. Then, you can break each chapter down into scenes. This is really good if your chapters are long or have a lot going on in them. If you want to go beyond descriptions, you can paste the content of each chapter or scene in there if you already have it written in another document. Then you can select which characters are in that scene or chapter from your character list, whose viewpoint it's told from, where it is located, what the time and date is (great for if you're writing something that is time-based), what--if any--items are in use in that particular chapter/scene, and so much more.

The layers for organization are endless and you can customize it completely based on the type of story you're writing. For each scene, chapter, character, location, etc, you can write additional notes and goals, assign priorities and tags, and tell it whether it's part of your plot or subplot, whether it's action or reaction, or even make storyboards.

You can even write the whole story within yWriter, as it has a built-in word processor, but I don't plan to use it for that. I'm taking what I've already written in Word and am using the software to help me make sense of the whole thing and get it organized. Doing it this way will help me flesh out ambiguous parts, find plot holes, and overall refine the story and make it more cohesive so I can finish it more easily. But if you want to build your story from start to finish within the program, go for it! You can also import your existing story into it if it has chapter headings already laid out.

After you've finished your novel, you can export your yWriter file into an RTF document and put it into manuscript format. yWriter also has a feature that compiles all of your scene descriptions into a document, which is particularly helpful for that most-dreaded-by-all-writers task: synopsis writing. Imagine writing scene descriptions as you go and having your synopsis all but written by the time you finish your book! This software makes that so much easier.

So far, I've written detailed character bios (something I've never taken the time to do before), a background and demographic summary on my fictional town, and I've gotten each my chapters listed and broken down into specific scenes so that if I have to backtrack and look something up, I can find it so much quicker than scrolling up in a 200+ page document. This is a screen shot I took a couple days ago when I first started using it. You'll notice the chapter list on the left, then the scene breakdown just to the right of that. On the bottom, you can tab between the actual chapter content, notes, characters, locations, etc.

Also, it's a very clean and efficient piece of software. I've yet to detect any bugs, it doesn't use any ads, and it doesn't hog any resources. It's also another way of backing up your book should something happen to your original document. The person who wrote this program is a genius. And perhaps best of all: it's FREE.

I think yWriter can unite the stalwarts of both camps: note takers and note haters. And believe me, if I ever thought for a moment that it sucked in any way or wasn't worth using, I wouldn't have spent the last 45 minutes writing this blog for you. I urge anyone who writes novels and feels even the slightest bit bogged down by it to try it out. I can't wait to go back and give my other unfinished books the yWriter treatment. Who knows, maybe I'll actually finish them.

Download it HERE.

No one ever said it was Easy

My writer friend Ian sent me this article the other day with the message attached that basically said, "Is this what we're shooting for?"

It was written by Daniel Menaker, a former vice-president and editor-in-chief for Random House, and in it he paints an exceedingly dour picture of the publishing industry and its very grim prospects in a changing economy, where publishing houses are running deeper into the red than ever before, and where a dwindling "reader culture" is buying fewer and fewer books.

I won't deny that the article is very informative and even at times funny, because what better way to get to the scoop on the gritty side of any industry than to talk to a former veteran of it who has a slightly more jaded outlook than a perky entry-level acquisitions editor hellbent on being the one to discover the next Harry Potter, Carrie, Time Traveler's Wife, or The Da Vinci Code?

But what about the writers who read this? After all, it's our manuscripts that get shuffled around these places (if we're lucky enough to have agents to get them there), where they more often than not go to die. If they do make it through the Helm's Deep-like battle of acquisitions editors, and sales and marketing teams, that's not the end. That's because Menaker goes on to remind us that at least 150,000 books a year get published in this country (a conservative figure, I believe, when you consider small presses and the growing indy publishing market), and maybe 75 of those are ever going to get the attention of major reviewers like the New York Times or make a profit for the publisher.

So again, this begs the question: Why bother? The odds of success and making money as a novelist in today's market seem downright minuscule. Chances are you'll still have to find income from additional sources like seminars, teaching gigs, or even your current non-writing-related dayjob.

I have one thing to say to that: Welcome to the arts. The book market is not unique in how it is stacked against the droves of people trying to break through and make a name for themselves. The standards for excellence are high, and while it seems like the occasional turd pellet slips through the filters, so be it; let that serve as a grain of hope for your own chances.

If your instrument is a guitar rather than a word processor, same deal. If you sing opera, dance ballet, or throw a mean fast ball or touchdown pass, the chances of becoming the next icon in your chosen field are always going to be infinitesimal. Too many wannabe Joe Montanas fresh out of college usually end up grabbing pine before the end of the pre-season. So you have to ask yourself what your final goal is. If it's for the fame and for the money, I wouldn't blame you if you did quit, and in fact would probably invite you to do so. Our culture has suffered enough at the hands of people purveying junk to make a quick buck.

However, if you feel you'll be satisfied just seeing your name on a shelf in Barnes & Noble or even just carving out a small but devoted niche of readers in your little corner of the world, then keep on working. The really big breaks often happen to those who are digging away just like the rest of us, doing what they love, before finding the bouillon.

Writing is not the art of the impatient. On the contrary, it's the art of the masochist. You not only have to anticipate the pain, but some dark part of you has to actually enjoy it. You have to be like Daniel-san up against the Cobra Kai, doing a crane kick into the bully's face while hopping up and down on your busted kneecap.

For all of David Menaker's dolrums, warnings, and lamentations in that article, there was nothing in it that made me for an instance want to stop doing what I was doing. In fact, it reminded me that almost all of us have to be willing to suffer and bleed a little bit for the things we love. However, if you feel you've bled enough and that the joy just isn't there for you anymore, then by all means acknowledge you fought the good fight and pick another path that makes you happier. Everyone has their limit. Hell, I'm sure even Rocky Balboa will be done after the tenth movie. But if you haven't gotten to that point yet, if you're just starting out, and if you have the same conviction that there is an audience for your work, and that you have what it takes to endure the years it often takes to hack it to the top (or anywhere near it) in this business (or ANY business for that matter), then it should be easy enough to swallow Menaker's bitter pill and remind yourself that the harder the climb, the more satisfying the victory.