Devotion to the Craft

On her website, author of "Eat, Pray, Love", Elizabeth Gilbert, gives her advice on writing. She acknowledges the fact that this is all very ephemeral and personal, making sure that the reader knows this is just her vision of the craft. Eat, Pray, Love is the book that I would take with me on a deserted island, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but she definitely offers some interesting thoughts on what it takes to develop as a writer.

Gilbert writes, "I created my own post-graduate writing program, which entailed several years spent traveling around the country and world, taking jobs at bars and restaurants and ranches, listening to how people spoke, collecting experiences and writing constantly. My life probably looked disordered to observers (not that anyone was observing it that closely) but my travels were a deliberate effort to learn as much as I could about life, expressly so that I could write about it".
This is so important because Gilbert made a vow to writing and took action in a way that made sense to her. Nothing could stop her from writing and, as she goes on to point out, receiving letters of rejection one after the other did not diminish her sense of hope. As she carved her own path, she also came to the realization that discipline is largely overrated and that self-forgiveness is much more important. As a writer, do NOT pre-reject yourself. Gilbert points out that, "Magazines, editors, agents -- they all employ young people making $22,000 a year whose job it is to read through piles of manuscripts and send you back letters telling you that you aren't good enough yet: LET THEM DO IT. Your only job is to write your heart out.

Later on, Gilbert says, "Becoming a published writer is sort of like trying to find a cheap apartment in New York City: it's impossible. And yet... every single day, somebody manages to find a cheap apartment in New York City. I can't tell you how to do it. I can only tell you -- through my own example -- that it can be done. I once found a cheap apartment in Manhattan. And I also became a writer".
Her primary message is to write as much as you can and don't worry about the rest. Too often, aspiring writers worry about things beyond their control. Concentrate on what is in front of you, the piece you are working on, and the rest will be taken care of.

If you decide to become a writer, then do it, "like a miner buried under a fallen roof".