I think we have a very romanticized notion of being a writer that pervades our culture. I suspect that this notion, this myth of the writer, as evidenced in Anne Dillard's work, The Writing Life, does a disservice to us all. By keeping the making of art to the rarified few who can shirk all responsibility and just painful drink coffee and write (or worse, do shots and write), the whole, this larger teeming mass of people with stories to tell, are excluded. Just as every other profession has some sort of gatekeeper (Bar Exams, Teaching Certs, Nursing Licenses, Accounting Exams), I see this myth of the writer as being our watchman. Only when we break free of this idea can we come into our own.