When all goes well, you kick back and pat yourself and bask in various accolades. But I think writing is mostly a thing of pain. The best stuff is distilled from the deepest funks, and it generally hurts to crank out the good shit. Good writers are compelled to write.
Good writers write for themselves and no one else.
It just sorta spews out. It just sorta juts out there and then other people hammer on it. Tis a mystery why we do it. It's a poser. We write and then we get hammered.