Let’s start with a caveat: I’m not the kind of person who grew up wanting to be a writer because I sort of figured out at the age of 11 or 12 that writing was a Bad Idea. Everybody wanted to do it, most people sucked, and the few who didn’t suck barely made any money. Before writing could ever be a goal or aspiration, I had already consigned the idea of writing to the metaphorical bin.