Awwwww, poor writers!

I was on my way home tonight, listening to a re-run of "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross and she was interviewing author Stephen McCauley. It was an interesting enough conversation until he got to the writing-is-hell part. I'm so tired of hearing authors say that, are you? Writing isn't something that people can't not do because they're raking in big money. It's something one does for love. You do it because you must. And what came to me tonight is that it's possibly not the writing that's so excruciating, the introspection it takes that freaks people out. Don't they realize that if they got better at that, they could probably save a lot of money on shrinks and anti-depressants? Not to mention, put most of their relationships on a much more mature level.

Being able to make a living at writing is a privilege. Stop whining about it!