For the first six or seven years of my life as a practicing writer, I had one goal: to publish a novel. You know, the kind of “publishing a novel” that requires hundreds of query letters, lots of waiting, agents, contracts, and being associated with a publishing house that isn’t associated with Amazon.

There is nothing “wrong” with wanting to publish a novel (AND NOTHING WRONG WITH SELF-PUBLISHING — it still counts!!!). I’m confident in saying most aspiring writers, whether they continue down the path or not, start out wanting to be able to say they wrote a book like their favorite author.

Why? Probably many reasons — including the fact that when you’re surrounded by so many published books, the thought of having your own seems cool. And kind of easy. After all, anyone can write a book, right?

As I got older and found myself in a position…