crazed egos

Neil Gaiman wrote this on his blog a few weeks ago, in response to an email from an aspiring author:

It does help, to be a writer, to have the sort of crazed ego that doesn't allow for failure. The best reaction to a rejection slip is a sort of wild-eyed madness, an evil grin, and sitting yourself in front of the keyboard muttering "Okay, you bastards. Try rejecting this!" and then writing something so unbelievably brilliant that all other writers will disembowel themselves with their pens upon reading it, because there's nothing left to write. Because the rejection slips will arrive. And, if the books are published, then you can pretty much guarantee that bad reviews will be as well. And you'll need to learn how to shrug and keep going. Or you stop, and get a real job.

Which is the attitude I've adopted towards my school work, since I'm crashing and burning in a few of my classes and have fucked up several papers. I know I'm better than this slacker chick I've turned into; it's just funny how a major emotional/mental identity crisis tends to distract you from the important things in life, like the details of the French Revolution. How long are personal crises supposed to last anyway? Aren't I due some vacation time at this point? Anyway, when I sit down at the computer tomorrow to write 10 pages in French on historical representations of Charlotte Corday, it'll be with a "Ha! Just you try and flunk this you bastards!" kind of approach.