It Hurts To Write

I wish I could contract hypergraphia, a mental illness in which the victim suffers (or enjoys) an uncontrollable desire to write.

In her book The Midnight Disease, Alice W. Flaherty writes that she experienced hypergraphia during postpartum depression. Her twin boys, so small that one who wrapped his hand around her finger couldn't cover it, had died. After her ten days of pain (what?!) the scientist woke up to "tendrils of words coiling around her." (Flaherty, 2004, p. 6)

Writing is a lonely business, writes someone whose name I forgot. I believe it. In our sharpest heartache, our deepest, most refined and intellectual desire is to produce the art of writing. Julia Cameron says that artists suffer when they don't make art. Is that saying I suffer because I don't write? Because I don't write because I suffer.

Writing is a stretchy business, too. I sit for hours, which keeeeeeeeps stretching into time as I pour out little ink marks, remembering myself on the pages of a stranger's story. And by then I need to stretch. Flaherty said, "But it disturbed me that writing, which seems one of the most refined, even transcendent talants, should be so influenced by biology." (Flaherty, 2004, p. 13)

I, too, am addicted to writing.


Flaherty, Alice W. (2004). The Midnight Disease. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Recognizing Subtle Sabotage

Subtle sabotage occurs when a well-meaning friend offers criticism he or she considers helpful or constructive, but is not wise or relevant.

"When a negative thought concerning your personal power comes to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out" (Peale, 1952, p. 13).

Artists deserve to know the truth about their work. But the beginnings of creativity are delicate. We must protect them. Criticism is truly destructive when it is not met within the artist with a response of relief and surprise over the accuracy of the sudden light. Ms. Julie Cameron, author of seventeen books, including Finding Water and The Artist's Way, said on the subject of identifying those moments when a legitimate correction must be made: "As a rule, it [negative criticism] is withering and shaming in tone; ambiguous in content; personal, inaccurate, or blanket in its condemnations. There is nothing to be gained from irresponsible criticism" (Cameron, 1992, p. 72).

Don't ask for criticism. Let the Universe, if you will, bring feedback to you. If worried about the grammer or style, consult The Gregg Reference Manual.



Cameron, Julie. (1992). The Artist's Way. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam Inc.

Peale, N. (1952). The Power of Positive Thinking. New York, NY: Ballentine.