Barb's suggestion that I write just for myself really makes sense.  I don't 
seem to be able to confine myself to therapeutic writing or to get away 
from the thought, "Now who can I market this to?"  It's kind of
an obsession.

How to explain it?  After having this discussion on another list, I 
currently lean towards Jonathan Franzen's theory (actually suggested by a 
linguist who was interviewing him) that writers are people who early in 
life had a stronger/larger connection to books than to people. Characters 
in novels were our community of choice.  Now we see writing as a natural 
outreach to the reading community, the _ur_text, the meta-novel.  We feel 
we express ourselves better in writing than in person.  (Just think how 
unclear I must be in person!)  We want to join that Great 
Conversation.  (That's not what Franzen calls it, but that's what everyone 
since Dickens has called the back-and-forth referential nature of 
literature, isn't it?)

Being "legitimately" published seems so vital because it's the final link 
in the
"connection."  Franzen's article (in which he explains all this much more 
clearly)
is in his book of essays _How to Be Alone_, as "Why Bother?"  (God knows I 
ask that all the time.)

An actual pathology at last.  Sigh!
- - -
The only thing that flies faster than an F-16 is your guardian angel
- - - -
Nine out of ten doctors recommend reading my books.  The tenth is a quack.
Shalanna Collins   http://home.attbi.com/~shalanna/>
_Dulcinea: or Wizardry A-Flute_  (e-mail me 4 excerpt)  ISBN 0-7388-5388-7
New!  I'm trying out a blog/jrnl http://www.livejournal.com/users/shalanna/>

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