Writerly Life: Yes, We are (All) Totally Mental

Are writers all crazy?

Well...duh.

I mean, we (some of us) work for free.

And if we are honest with ourselves, we expect that to continue to happen for at least ten years (unless we are Stephanie Meyer).

And we all know we may never get paid a single penny, even after twenty years.

Honestly, what sane person would do that?


Also,

• we live in imaginary worlds where dragons exist and eleven-year-olds can save the world from utter destruction;

• we do things like spend all day deciding in what order to arrange seven words;

• and then tomorrow we erase all seven because they were stupid.

My theory: most (all?) writers suffer from

• ADD (what other job would zoned-out, dreamy, late, always-getting-lost people like us not get fired from?),

• OCD (how else could we spend twelve hours a day for months working and reworking scenes and sentences if we couldn't obsess...er...hyper-focus? And then act out our obsession..er...hyper-focus...through a compulsion to write? How many authors have you heard say they "can't not write"?),

•  (mostly likely) SERIOUS DEPRESSION. (Well, it goes with being sensitive enough to write something emotionally powerful.)

What do you think?

It's just a hunch.

But if not, how do you explain all those people at writing conferences who have the same freaked-out OCD hand-washing ritual--involving too-many-paper-towels-and-when-you-can-turn-off-the-faucet-and-how-you- can-open-the-door--that I have? 

Yep. I believe we're ALL crazy. Musicians and artists, too.
and
We only do this stuff because we HAVE to. Like we have to wash our hands.

Right.

Any sane person would have quit before she'd started.