Persistence Pays in Sharing Your Work

At a used bookstore I found a stack of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction magazines from the mid-80's for really cheap. Aside from the science fiction stories enclosed, is a letter from the editor Mr. Asimov, each issue. I found myself being most interested in these letters, they are a fascinating insight into the mind of a great writer in his twilight. In the following quote from one of those letters he is talking about his qualifications for being a survivor of science fiction writing, part of which is writing in the genre for at least 40 years.

"Secondly, each must be a non-suffering writer. Lots of writers, even great writers, don't necessarily like to write, and must force themselves to do so. This doesn't prevent them from writing well, you understand, but it does prevent them from writing a lot, and my qualification for being a survivor is that one writes steadily and prolifically."

-Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction, Nov. 1987.

It's an important point he makes here, for any kind of artist; what separates the people with talent from each other are the ones who work even when they don't feel inclined or inspired to work. The ones with discipline enough to work when they don't want to, are the ones who survive.