Writing and fishing have a few things in common but the most apt one is persistence. Stick-to-it-tiveness, if you will. To catch a fish you have to have a fly on the water. You don't catch anything worrying, untangling your line, or brooding on the banks. You have to keep casting. You have to get wet. Early on in my writing career (if I can call it a career) I realized that the people who succeeded were those who stuck with it the longest. They aren't always the most talented, they don't always have the slickest way with words or the most original ideas, but they have one thing none of us writers can live without -- a solid, rock-bottom belief in themselves. That is the basis of persistence. A vision of success, in some form. A belief that you can do it, you can write that novel, publish that story, that somebody somewhere will get you.

More of the extended metaphor, hooking the reader, keeping your toes in the water... at Breakfast in Bed.

Or at my guest blog at Type M for Murder.