Writing . . . and quitting

Just last week, I was talking to a friend from high school who is a lawyer by training. Several years ago, he tried his hand at writing fiction. In fact, he tells me he wrote eight -- yes, I said eight -- novels. He even joined Mystery Writers of America after getting a short story published.

He said he tried unsuccessfully for a while to get an agent but then just quit.

And I asked myself, how in the world could you just quit?

Writing is hard. Getting published is even harder. Neither is for the faint-hearted. But why quit, not just trying to get published but writing as well?

I can imagine a time when I might stop trying to get published, whether I ever publish a book or not. But I can't imagine not writing. I daydream all the time and, to me at least, writing is just an extension of daydreaming. A short story or a novel is a daydream written down.

I encouraged my friend to take up the pen again, and even to come sit in on my Wednesday critique group. Perhaps it will inspire him to write. (Then again, the frank honesty of my group may turn him off from writing forever.)

It just seems to me that if you have written eight novels, you had something to say. I can't see how you could give that up.

Thanks for reading and get back to work.