A while back I asked people what their biggest challenges were relating to writing. There were a number, but I'd say this one represents the issue that came up most often:
"The biggest problem or challenge I face that relates to writing is my own laziness. I rarely get blocked or run out of ideas, but writing is damn hard work for me at times, and during those times I find it much easier to watch a film, read a book or just stare out the bloody window. I've found that accountability, i.e., deadlines (imposed by others) and the knowledge that others will soon be reading what I've written keeps me going. But that has only worked for shorter pieces. Writing a novel is the hardest work I've ever done because, assuming the unlikely chance of any financial reward, the reward of at least having people read my work seems to be perpetually somewhere over the horizon. It's hard to make such a tough slog every single day, without knowing when, where or even if anything will come of it."
The key to this issue is in the last sentence: how to keep going when we don't know whether we will arrive at the destination we have in mind?
I can't guarantee that anybody, including me, will have the success they want, but I ask you to consider a different question:
How will making this journey affect you?
I don't mean the riches or fame you might get, or the lack of same, but the actual process of writing. For most of us it's not only a way to (we hope) make some money, it's also about creating something that comes from the heart. That's true whether it's a novel, a book of recipes, or a memoir about surviving cancer.
The personal effects of writing vary, of course, but some common ones include figuring out what we really think and feel about the world, thinking more clearly because we have to express what we think, going on journeys in our imagination that we'll never make in real life, and getting to share something that only we can write, whether that's with three friends to whom we send our manuscript or millions who buy our book or see our movie.
If nothing of that sort is important to you, if you'll consider the journey worthwhile only if it ends in massive financial success, it might be better to investigate other ways to spend your time.
However, if you believe that writing is a way of life and a way to grow, then I can guarantee that something will come of it, something important and valuable regardless of whether or not what you write ever ends up on any best-seller list.
What will come of it is you.
(My book, Your Writing Coach, may help you on the journey. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)