Goodreads asked Shane Harrison:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Shane Harrison I am also a painter and the best thing is when the painting clicks and I have a finished work in my hand that sends a surge through me. Although the writing process is radically different, the thrill is similar. A short story is something like a painting, being a finite piece that is relatively quickly assimilated. Stories, however, take up lodgings within, rather than being something to observe. There is a long term satisfaction with the realisation of a story. The process itself can be both heaven and hell, and all things in between. Longer writing pieces, such as a novel, take up a lot of time and internal space. I love it, most of the time, but it's a long and winding road. As a writer, it's difficult to separate the journey from the destination. One way or another; I can't stop doing it. So, perhaps there is no best thing, only the thing itself.

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