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Monday, December 13, 2021

The Self-Absorbed Writer

     Not everything that happens to you can or needs to be fictionalized. It's unhealthy and a little creepy for one to think of everything that happens as possible fodder for one's fiction. That kind of attitude can lead to some pretty serious self-absorption. Unfortunately, we've met writers or artists who seem to view themselves as little gods who breathe more rarefied air than the rest of us mortals. After a traumatic event, the last thing one should be thinking about is one's fiction.

     Some people think of writing as therapeutic. Maybe on some level it is, but if you need therapy, see a therapist. Writing, if anything, will make you more neurotic. [One author, when her publisher announced that the release of her book would be delayed a few days asked her social media followers to pray for her. It doesn't get more self-absorbed than than that.]

Robin Hemley, Turning Life into Fiction, 1994 

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