I can't tell you how much I needed NEEDED N.E.E.D.E.D to hear all of what you've written.

I'm a literary fiction writer. And god damn it, it's hard. There are days I speak to lit agents and their comments crawl up my spine like I've been tased.

At the same time, it is a relief people like you exist. I've encountered each one of those points you mention. Especially point 2. I'm reading Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf) these days and I literally have to reread paras for the lack of attention. I also notice this happens more when I scroll my phone a lot, do too much research on the dreaded publishing industry, or speak to a lit agent / publisher who 'mentors me to write a commercially viable story'. Point No. 7 ties in with this.

Point No. 5: Yes, God, YES. I tell myself that the world is rich with perspectives and perhaps, mine doesn't co-exist with other wonderfully artistic people whose work may be, errr, good but beyond my sensibilities.

Point No.8: This is a delightful, actually. In a recent story, I showed horses running on a beach and many people in my critique group saw them as the five senses.

Point No. 11: Kill me for this is the truth of my poor literary life.

I love you, woman. Two continents away, you kept a fellow woman sane today.