Rejection and criticism will always be a part of the writer’s experience. As writers, we subject ourselves to the approval of others. While most of us have managed to accept these two factors as part of the vocation, some writers take it too personally to the point that they fall into depression and may even stop writing. Throw in the fact that writing can be a traditional or a non-traditional vocation, but in both cases, a writer’s salary is just enough to pay the bills and put decent food on the table. And for those who aren’t lucky enough to land good side hustles and gigs, their salary comes close to the poverty line.

And yet, more and more people are picking up their pens or sitting in front of their computers to give the story or book inside their heads a physical form with or without the intent of profiting from it. Is it because the Internet has given everyone the opportunity to self-publish and potentially earn from it? Maybe, maybe not, but that’s beside the point. When not cultivated as a habit, writing is a craft that doesn’t come easily. Imagine a writer laboring for hours, tormenting himself by groping to find the right words, coming close to banging his head, and after the first draft, spending countless hours revising until he feels satisfied—and at times he will never be satisfied. Such is the stereotypical agony ascribed to the writing process.

This begs the question: Why would a sane human being subject himself to the emotional, physical, and mental torment of a craft that doesn’t even have a solid promise of a favorable outcome? Many great American novels out there have never seen publication and are reduced to hard copies collecting dust in an attic. What’s in it for anyone to get into the apprenticeship of writing? Time is a considerable investment to put into something that may or may not provide material rewards.

The thing is, writing is more than what has been mentioned above. As human beings, we have a primal urge to communicate. Even the most introverted among us have that particular need to relay what they think and feel, and this is why we do it. As Suze Orman said, "Writing is hard work, not magic. It begins with deciding why you are writing and who you are writing for. What is your intent? What do you want the reader to get out of it? What do you want to get out of it? It's also about making a serious time commitment and getting the project done."

In line with what she said, when a writer hones in on his intent, he creates a sense of belonging among readers who find identity and solidarity that are reasons for them to read the writer’s work. They seek a part of themselves in the pages of a book or words in a story that illustrate their similar struggles and triumphs. Thus writing, according to Catherine Drinker Bowen, is “not apart from living. That writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.”