Why Do We Bother?

This month I'm participating in Nanowrimo and am spending every available minute I have thinking about or writing my book.  When I think about the amount of time that goes into writing a book, it can get a little depressing.  Especially since I watched my daughter read a long book in three days this week.  All I could think about was how long it took the author to write the first draft, then to edit it, then edit it again, and that says nothing about the publishing process of querying, finding a publisher, copy edits, marketing, and everything else that goes with it.  I began to think to myself, why bother spending all this time when people will just read it in three or four days and be done with it?

Then I heard my daughter laugh next to me in the car as she read her book on the way to school.  The way her eyes lit up at certain parts.  The way she kept telling me that she couldn't wait until I read it too, so she could share her favorite parts.  It filled my heart with joy to see her loving to read this book.  It wasn't a book that I had written but I could suddenly picture people like her reading and enjoying a book of mine and suddenly all the work seemed worth it!

(BTW just had to share a link to the book that brought a smile to my daughter's face.  She loved the Percy Jackson series and this one promises to keep her attention just as much!)