The quick and easy plan.

Larry told me tonight that, in order to save myself from financial difficulty, all I needed to do was write a bestseller.

"Yeah," I thought. "I'll get right on that."

Actually, he later clarified that I just needed to devote my time to doing work that I truly care about, like writing.

But it's not like I'm broke, so I come up with the basis for a hit novel to make everything better.

Planning that sounds like the aquarium escape plan in "Finding Nemo," where the fish agonize over getting out of the tank ... yet they breeze past going out the window, dropping five floors, getting across a four-lane intersection and going off the dock.

Maybe that's how I should think of my big goal, though. Maybe if I just get myself to the hard part, where I have time to come up with a book, write it, get it marketed around, get an agent, get a publisher, hope it generates notice, write another book, get it published, hope it doesn't exhibit a sophomore slump, go on a book tour, then write another book and go up for the National Book Award.

Piece of cake.

Of course, the other option is not trying. Or, worse, continuing to write and yet not publishing anything, leaving my work to people in my will so that they'll have to do all the hard work of getting me published.

Why does this seem so daunting?

Why can't I just find another job? Or two other jobs?

Because I want to do this right. And cautiously. And yet, I want it done now.