It was easy this time. Okay, I’m lying. But I want to tell you it was easy this time because that’s how stories work: you overcome something that is holding you back and it never troubles you again. But in the real world, you have to do the hard thing over and over again, and reward yourself for succeeding, until it wears a new groove. It was, at least, easier.

— The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear (White Space, #3) (87%)