There was a quote from the bible that I struggled to find for a long time, that said, “I am nothing but skin and bones, I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.”

Of course, I eventually found it in Job 19:20. But, boy does it ever haunt me still today.

Despite the piling on of self-doubt, and the voice in your head that has no qualms about telling you how dreadful your writing actually is, I still seem to “escape only by the skin of my teeth.”

It is a daily turmoil.

Living life on a proverbial stretching rack. Being stretched by the demons inside yourself, by the obscurity, by the empty bank account, knowing you probably have a better shot at winning the lottery (you never actually buy a ticket for) than you do in becoming a successful author.

But, there you go again, “escaping by the skin of your teeth.”

I tell ya, sometimes I really wonder why I even do this to myself. Why I bother. Then I have a breakthrough in a story plot I’ve been working on, or I reminisce about a book I finished writing the manuscript on several months ago.

Maybe a few close calls are worth it.

(I wrote 1185 and edited 3001 words today)