A Writer's Life

I write for money, but contrary to what ole Sam Johnson said ("None but a blockhead writes except for money"), I also write for pleasure and for therapy.

Roland Barthes wrote often of the "erotic" pleasure of writing. Lots of writers talk about the agonies of trying to make a story work, and it can be frustrating. But not so many talk about the dreamland flow one achieves when it's going well or when carefully fitting the pieces together. I often think I'm happiest when I'm writing, lost in the flow.

A North Carolina State professor found that if people write down their troubles they can often concentrate better afterward because it helps get the problem out of their head onto paper. 

A Hiaku writer has written a book about writing as Zen practice, as meditation (Gail Sher, "One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers, Arkana Books, 1999). That too, is true.

Other studies show that people who write about their experiences -- the essence of what a journalist does -- protect themselves against Alzheimer's. My memory is certainly no proof of that idea. What was I saying?

This journal, so long as it lasts, is going to be about writing. The process. The pleasure. Robert Louis Stevenson once told an aspiring writer who despaired of making a living at it, "The work is the wages."

That's it in a Hyde-bound nutshell.

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