The Writers' Circle

There are 7 steps on the slip-road to glory. Every writer has taken at least some of them. It starts not with a sense of crusade, but actually with a sense of disappointment.
Let me explain... At some time you would have bought a book. The outside cover of said book promised you hours of enjoyable escapism while you read the engrossing story within. You settle down in your favourite reading spot, open the cover, breathe in that wonderful new book smell and plunge in.
The first chapter is not as good as you expected, but you carry-on, figuring that it might get better. By chapter three it has become boring, and at the end of chapter four, you throw the thing down in disgust. You say to yourself "I could do better than that".
This is step 1 - THE IDENTIFICATION OF RUBBISH.
You pick the thing off the floor, look at the back to see how much money you have given to the writer and publisher and throw it in the bin.
After a while you forget about it, but that sense of disappointment is locked away somewhere in your brain for future use.

The next thing that happens is step 2. This is: THE BRILLIANT IDEA.
This might happen the day after you threw the rubbish book away. It might be a week later, or a month, a year or ten or twenty years. It is an idea for a story that is so brilliant that it frightens you. It has come from nowhere into your head like a bolt of celestial lightning. It is such a good idea for a story, that you think twice about telling anyone about it. They will obviously see the potential and claim it as their own. Something triggers in your brain and you remember the rubbish book that you once bought and realise that someone actually got paid for writing it. If rubbish like that is thought to be commercial, then your brilliant story idea could make you a fortune. You decide that you are going to be a best selling novelist. Hell! You're going to be the next John Grisham. You decide to sit down and write your masterpiece.

After a week or so, you have produced a few thousand words of tightly typed manuscript, and are so excited that you cannot bare to keep it to yourself. You show it to the people that you live with: Your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/parent/flatmate whoever. They will say things like: "It's very good/I like it/Wow etc. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. They are saying nice things about your work because they live with you, possibly like you, and would rather that you are in a good mood when you are around them. If massaging your ego is what it takes, they will do it.
Buoyed up by the false praise of your loved ones, you show the manuscript to a few friends and associates. Those that bother to read it will say things like "umm" and "Yes I see". This translates to "It's mindless drivel, but I don't want to upset you".
There will be one really good friend who will tell you that it stinks. You will be deeply wounded by this comment and decide that your really good friend is not your friend at all.
This is step 3 - THE CRUSHING PUT-DOWN.
In a fit of pique you stop writing for a while.

Sometime later, a day, week year whatever, you pick up your manuscript and read it yourself. It is vastly different from how you remembered it. With a growing sense of dismay you realise that your ex-friend was right. The story is still a good story, but you haven't written it properly and it stinks.
This is step 4 - THE EROSION OF SELF-DELUSION.
You apologise to your friend and try to repair your relationship.

The brilliant idea is tucked away out of sight for a while, and you continue reading stuff that other people have produced. You find that you are reading differently now. Instead of just reading the story, you are looking at the structure of the writing. You are seeing the rhythm, the tenses, senses and grammar. You realise that to be a writer, you have to learn how to write. How could you have been so stupid not to have realised that before!
Still, you are a resilient soul, so you decide that rather than launch your as yet unwritten masterpiece on an unsuspecting world that will take years to put together properly, you will try something a bit simpler to start with, and so you write articles or short stories or poems. You show them to your friends, and occasionally instead of saying "umm" they will say that they liked it. As time go's on there are less and less umms. Without realising it you are altering your writing style to what people want.
This is step 5 - THE LEARNING OF THE CRAFT.
One day everyone you know says that they like something you have written. You may not have won the Nobel prize for literature but you still feel euphoric. John Grisham may be safe for the moment, but you reckon that some of the others will have some competition soon. 
You decide to share your genius with the rest of the world, and so you join a writers group. After a while you realise that this is like a new group of friends except that they are more honest and knowledgeable about writing. You show your work and take the knocks and plaudits in equal measure.

One day, you look back at your earlier stuff and compare it with your latest. You notice a huge difference. It is now more.....well, professional somehow. You have learnt to cast a critical eye over your own work, and understand how to fix the problems. Two things that you could not have done a short while ago.
You start to send your writing out to publishers and agents, and begin your collection of rejection slips. The fact that you are not an overnight success doesn't bother you so much now. You have heard the war stories from the writer's groups and know that a combination of luck, perseverance, talent and hard work are needed to get even a foothold in the writing business. You plod on improving your skills and making contact with others.
People have seen your writing, or at least heard that you write, and you find that you are being asked to write for small circulation newspapers or magazines.
This is step 6 - THE FOOT IN THE DOOR.
You may not get paid, but at least your writing is being looked at by more and more people. You find that it is easier to write, and when you check your copy there are fewer and fewer errors. You continue writing for fun and sending off the submissions.

Then one day instead of the usual rejection slip, there is a letter. It is very polite, offers you little or nothing in terms of money, but they are interested and want to talk to you.
This is step 7 - YOU ARE ON THE ROAD TO GLORY.