Of course, there is not a clear path to authorship – for any of us.
And I think, they way “authorship” is being used here, we could include in it: Getting paid to write, having a successful blog, or being a full-time writer.
I think the thing to note is that McMurtry had written and published five books before he felt like he was a writer!
I wonder how many blog posts I will have to publish before I feel like a blogger.
And I’m no Larry McMurtry…
Understand: Your goals will take you longer than you think they will.
While I’m at it, I should emphasize that my path to authorship was a long, stutter-step affair. Nothing about it was predetermined—I had no vision on the Damascus road. I hoped to be a writer, but it was not until I had published my fifth book, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, that I became convinced that I was a writer and would remain one. The year before that book came out I taught my last class at Rice, where I was awarded a tenure I never really used. Marcia Carter and I had just opened our rare bookshop in Washington, D.C., and the academic life dropped behind me, forever as it turned out.
-Larry McMurtry, Literary Life