What a Writer Needs

Someone once asked me, "What's the most important thing a sci-fi writer needs in order to write?"

"Courage," I answered.

It takes a huge amount of courage to believe that one can write things like this, courage to push forward through the research and the writer's block and the fear and the doubt and everything else.  Courage to actually be rather than pretend, or dream, or dabble.  Courage to do the hard work, face the hard facts, and courage to make the sacrifices required.

A bit from George Keenan can also be useful here: "Heroism, the Caucasian mountaineers say, is endurance for one moment more."

And that strikes me as a pretty good definition of courage, as well.


(Cross-posted at A Slight Risk of Insanity.  Wise Readers always welcome - send an email to dhunterauthor at yahoo dot com if you want to sign on.)