Virtues of A Writer Part II

The next virtue in the Chinese Morality of Deed is:

(Source)

Loyalty--The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action.

"No more important duty can be urged upon those who are entering the great theater of life than simple loyalty to their best convictions."Edwin Hubbel Chapin

Writers are both intellectually and emotionally bound to their work. A novel's first draft could take from 30 days and up, to complete. Then, comes the rewriting, revising, and editing. After that is market researching, submitting, and sometimes, more rewriting, before the novel ever goes to print. there is also networking, promoting, and all the while, we must keep writing more.

That's a whole bunch of 'ings' and that takes a whole bunch of loyalty to that course of action--writing.

Which leads us to the next Morality of Mind:

(Source)

Endurance--The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress.

"Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck -- but, most of all, endurance."James Baldwin (1924 - 1987)

If there is one thing all writers must have, it's endurance. Writers need to make money, run households, raise children, care for pets, do laundry, pamper significant others, prepare food, pay bills, clean the house, heck! Writers have lives! But still, we want and need to write, rewrite, revise, edit, research, submit, network, promote, and continue writing.

Without endurance, writers would never become authors.