If you're thinking about becoming a professional writer, assess your temperament as well as your talent. Novelist Isaac Asimov, commenting on a classic editor's statement -- "We don't reject writers; we reject pieces of paper with typing on them" -- added: "Don't stay mad and decide you are the victim of incompetence and stupidity. If you do, you'll learn nothing and you'll never become a writer. ... Don't make the opposite mistake and decide the story is worthless. Editors differ, and so do tastes, and so do magazines' needs. Try the story somewhere else."

The way not to learn is to assume that friends who say "you're great" have good judgment. Young writers need true friends, teachers and editors who are willing to make them cry. All are hard to find in this age of emphasizing self-esteem rather than offering tough honesty.

So maybe Mark Twain's way of discerning a calling is best: "Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon his circumstances with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for."

Finally, for those who persevere, what Ptahotep wrote in ancient Egypt can be true: "Be a scribe! You sit grandly in your house, beer is poured copiously. All who see you rejoice in good cheer." Yes, but you must be prepared to give it up.

Ptahotep noted, "Happy is the heart of him who writes; he is young each day." Yes, but only if he writes from the heart, and not just for copious beer.