单选题
Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there is a big difference between "being a writer" and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at the typewriter. "You want to write," I say to them, "not want to be a writer."
The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying profession, for not every writer is kissed by future. There are thousands whose expectation is never rewarded. When I left a twenty-year career (职业) in the US Coast Guard to become a freelance writer (自由撰稿人), I had no hope at all. What I did have was a friend who found me a room in a New York apartment building. It didn"t even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used typewriter and felt like a real writer.
After a year or so, however, I still hadn"t got a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that I hardly made enough to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn"t going to be one of those people who die wondering: what if? I would keep putting my dream to the test—even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the
shadowland
of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.