If you've been toiling away at your heart's desire for a long time with nothing to show for all your efforts, and you're thinking of calling it quits, here are a few things to consider.
Personally, I'm a cockeyed optimist/masochist, depending on your point of view. The thought of turning my writing room back into a full-time bedroom never enters my mind. Not. Once a year I look at the piles of notes, books, etc., etc., and consider for about five seconds what a beautiful bonfire they'd make. Then I sit back down at the computer and slash open another vein in an attempt to fill a page with fiction.
FIRST: The only way you'll never succeed - get published - find the love of your life - yada, yada - is if you give up.
Yes, that's right - success may elude us our entire lives, even if we keep putting one foot in front of the other. Our chances of getting what we want may resemble the odds of winning the lottery. But ... even if there is one chance in a million, that's better than none at all - which is what will transpire if we give up.
No one in the publishing industry is going to take a chance on you, unless they are convinced you're a sure thing. If you're not convinced you're a sure thing, and you give up, why should anyone take a flyer on your project(s)?
"Keep going. Writing is finally play, and there's no reason why you should get paid for playing. If you're a real writer, you'll write no matter what." - Irwin Shaw
SECOND: Whether the idea(s) rolling around in your brain like so many pebbles ever see the light of day, is up to you alone. However, the folks who could benefit from those pebbles are legion. How many times have you seen a work of art or read a darned good book that inspired you or gave you a moment of pleasure in the middle of pain or depression?
If you have a book, painting, collage, art jewelry, or even a quilt in you, it's your duty to get it out there. Someone needs that moment of joy that only you can provide.
Author Willa Cather said it best -
"Every fine story must leave in the mind of the sensitive reader an intangible residuum of pleasure, a cadence, a quality of voice that is exclusively the writer's own, individual, unique."