You know what I’ve noticed?

Getting a rejection for a story that I consider one of the best ones I’ve ever written sure puts a damper on my enthusiasm for working on a new short story. 

I go through this every time.  “Why do I bother?  I’m wasting my efforts.  I may be mildly clever but not enough to stand above the other three-billion writers vying for the same publishing space.”

Then I have to go vacuum, or wash dishes, or dance around with my iPod, and then come back to write … simply because I love the act of creating.

In the end that’s all a writer can really count on.