Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years
to know whether or not it was funny.
- Alain de Botton -
I laughed when I read this the other day. I sit each day and work on my book, pounding away on the keys, vacillating between hope and despair, and there's no guarantee that my hard work will even see the light of day. And if it does emerge from the depths of my mind to the outside world, the time in between now and then will be a long time coming.
Sometimes that time seems like an eternity, which feeds into the despair, that feeling of hopelessness, that it's pointless to keep on keeping on.
But then hope kicks in.
I read over a previous chapter, editing and adjusting, and catch myself laughing and pulled into the story, wondering what's going to happen next--the funny thing being, I already know what's going to happen. That's hope right there. If I know what's going to happen, but I get caught up in the story like I don't, waiting with quivering breath for what unfolds.
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