Am I any good or should I just throw this in the trash?

I once read that when Stephen King wrote his first novel, "Carrie," he didn't think it was good enough so he threw the pages into the trash. His wife retrieved the novel and persuaded him to get it published.

Every writer has moments of self-doubt. What am I doing? There are millions of writers and they are all better than me. Why am I doing this? Shouldn't I be doing something more productive? How wil my writing make a difference? Am I being selfish? Am I any good?

These thoughts are very common. We writers live in our own worlds. Our greatest hope is that someone else will find value in our words. And, of course, it would be nice to make a little money. But that's not the incentive.

The incentive is recognition. You did a good job. You are a talented writer. That's what we want to hear.

Sometimes I'm tempted to hang it up and go get a real job. But I love what I do, I hope that I'm good at it and I want others to be touched by my words.

So it's on to the next book for me.