Why do we need to work so hard?

The question asked by a fellow writer today:  If 85% of everything that’s published today is crap, why do we need to work so hard to improve how we write?

The answer is this:  if your story is worth telling, you want to make it as easy as possible for your readers to receive it. Or, in the words of the great Maya Angelou:

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

The heart is, of course, where belief resides. And belief is more powerful than data, more powerful than information, more powerful even than knowledge.  And if you can connect with people on that level, if your story speaks to their place of belief, then you can interact with and positively influence the very way they look at the world.  

That’s worth every moment of hard work.