On her Twitter feed, the novelist and editor Keidi Keating posted this quote:  “Writing:  somewhere between torture and fun.”  From the viewpoint of the professional writer, this is about as accurate as you can get.  A good adjunct to this was the famous quip from the late, great Dorothy Parker:  “I hate writing, but I love having written.”

Why this love-hate relationship with writing?  I suspect a lot of it has to do with the difficulty involved in coaxing the words out of our consciousness and transcribing them in just the right way to interest, if not excite, the reader, so that none of the artistry and clarity of thought get’s lost in translation.  We have a story to tell that we think is worth telling, and we want to get it down as clearly and accurately and interestingly as possible, before we ask someone to trade their hard-earned money for it.  Good writing is a long, hard slog — and one of life’s greatest pleasures.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.