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That sly addiction?

Yay! For Will Self:

I gain nothing but pleasure from writing fiction; short stories are foreplay, novellas are heavy petting – but novels are the full monte. Frankly, if I didn’t enjoy writing novels I wouldn’t do it – the world hardly needs any more and I can think of numerous more useful things someone with my skills could be engaged in. As it is, the immersion in parallel but believable worlds satisfies all my demands for vicarious experience, voyeurism and philosophic calithenics. I even enjoy the mechanics of writing, the dull timpani of the typewriter keys, the making of notes – many notes – and most seducttive of all: the buying of stationery. That the transmogrification of my beautiful thoughts into a grossly imperfect prose is always the end result doesn’t faze me: all novels are only a version- there is no Platonic ideal. But I’d go further still: fiction is my way of thinking about and relating to the world; if I don’t write I’m not engaged in any praxis, and lose all purchase.

— Will Self, Guardian UK

Nobody told me writing wasn’t meant to be enjoyable. (Actually, a lot of people did, but they seemed a little glum so I ignored ’em.)

Though I can certainly understand the bulk of the comments about the day-in/day-out work of a selling writer, it seems to me that if you really want to do something miserable, there are plenty of quite horrific other day jobs out there. I think I’ve had a few of ’em myself.

… trade yer…!

 

(Thanks to J. for the link!)