The Doubting Writer

Do you ever wonder why you write? I mean think about it, you spend your time putting words down on a page, carefully crafting a story, when all the while you have no idea if it will ever be seen by anyone besides yourself. Which begs the question, is writing for yourself enough?

And then there's the frustration of the submission/rejection syndrome. The frustration of wondering if you're ever going to be good enough to crack those upper tier markets. The frustration of second guessing yourself, wondering if you're smart enough or talented enough to actually be a writer, until you just want to toss every word you've ever written into the fire and walk away from the desk to live a normal, word-free, life.

And still you come back to sit at the desk and put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard crafting yet another story. Are we all just crazy? Or is this what it means to be a writer? How do you deal with the doubts?