In my situation, every time I write a sentence, I'm thinking not only of the people I ended up in college with but my siblings, my family, my school friends, the people from my neighborhood. I've come to realize that this is an advantage, really: it keeps you on your toes.
It might be useful to distinguish between pleasure and joy. But maybe everybody does this very easily, all the time, and only I am confused.
People with children will know this: when the childcare is over, it's over on the dot. You immediately have to go into child mode; there's no down time.
Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.
We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are.
Books are not brands. Some people are very willing to see themselves as a brand, but you can't be a certain type of writer to a certain type of person all the time. It will kill you.