If It Looks Easy…

I dread telling people what I do
when I attend social gatherings.
I always know how the conversation will go.

Stranger: What do you do?
K: I write novels.
Stranger: Oh, I’m going to write/am writing a novel.
(said flippantly as though writing a novel is something
he/she can simply sit down at a computer
and do)

The reason everyone thinks
they can write a great novel
is because the true masters at writing
hide all of the work involved in their novels,
showing only the magic.

I figure skated in the past
and a former coach told me
that the audience should never see me sweat or grimace,
should never hear me huff, puff, grunt.
Great skaters make skating look easy.
Hiding the effort is part of being great.

It takes on average
10 years of hard work
to write at a professional level.
It takes as long or longer
to become a professional figure skater.

If a career appears easy,
it likely isn’t.
Investigate before you make a change.