Many a young person tells me that he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I explain that there's a big difference between 'being a writer' and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not of the long hours at a typewriter, 'You've got to want to write,' I say to them, 'not want to be a writer.' The reality is that writing is typically a lonely, private and low-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune there are thousands more whose longing is never rewarded. When I left a 20year career in the US Coast Guard to become a freelance writer(自由撰稿人), I had no prospects at all. What I did have was a friend who was fond of me and so supplied my room in a New York apartment building. It was cold and had no bathroom I bought a used manual typewriter and felt like a genuine writer. After a year or so of this existence, however, I still hadn't gotten a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that barely made enough for a weeks' groceries, I felt I was destined to be one of those people who die wondering, 'What if?' I would keep putting my dream to the test—even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the 'shadow land' of hope anyone with a dream must learn to live there. The passage is meant to ______.