'No One Owes You a Reading'

Crisis Magazine has a an interesting and encouraging article titled "On Being a Catholic Writer." The author is Ralph McInerny, who's generally best known as the creator of the Father Dowling murder mysteries. (The article's a reprint of a 1995 piece. McInerny died in 2010.)

He has some solid advice and encouraging words for writers:

The difference between a serious writer and a dilettante lies in their contrasting attitudes toward technique. The dilettante writes to amuse himself, an easy task, but the serious writer seeks to interest a reader. Over my typewriter I pinned the legend: No one owes you a reading. It has to be earned. The old-fashioned way — with plot.

A good novel tells a good story.

Just keep writing.