Dear Annie,

You write, “Are you a mouse or a woman?” A mouse, mostly, but I’ll give womanhood a try. You write “Writing a book, full time, takes between two and ten years.” So six years very part time (which is how long I’ve been writing mine) is really like two years full time, which leaves eight years full time or twenty-four years part time. You write “Why not shoot yourself, actually, rather than finish one more excellent manuscript on which to gag the world.” I don’t know. For another twenty-four years, it’s something to think about. 

Dillard, A. (1989). The Writing Life. New York: Harper & Row Publishers