The Writer's Life and other Myths

Many (most?) people believe that once a writer has published a book he's got it made. Money and fame, book tours, live by your own schedule, never have to punch the clock again.
How wrong they are.
Very few writers ever make enough on their writing alone to live the kind of wealth-filled life-style we all dream about. The truth is, only a small fraction of writers make their entire living from the income derived from writing.
People ask us, if your first two or three books don't make you a star, why keep writing? After all, it takes a lot of time to produce a book (though some don't look like it). You could make more putting in a couple of hours a day as a phone solicitor. Hell, you're used to rejections anyway.
The answer is, because we can't stop. We are addicts. Our drug is the written word, our needle the act of putting those words down. Even when we try to stop (and most of us have, out of disappointment and frustration) we can't. We feel empty. We wonder the house looking for something we've lost. We stand at the refrigerator hoping the nourishment we need is in there.
But the stories won't leave us alone. They follow us around, wake us in the night, interrupt our conversations.
So we go back. Back to the desk, the computer, the notebook, and we write.
And perhaps that is the best definition of the writer's life.