“The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it.”

One of the odd pieces of knowledge I picked up in my other life as a divorce lawyer is a scary familiarity with the DSM (IV). The official name is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? But, really, and not to minimize, but these issues come up in divorce more often than you might think.

What does this have to do with writing? Well, kind of everything. Long ago I stumbled upon a quote by E.L. Doctorow that made it all seem clear. The quote goes like this: “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”

The quote made me realize that being able to put all of my creative energy into a book was a gift. Writing allows us to do the socially unthinkable. In our heads and on our computer screens, we connect words and put together stories of worlds and people that don’t exist except how they exist to us. Writing gives us the freedom to do what others can’t. We create and manufacture, design and believe. It’s work, but it’s also special.

Don’t waste it. Write.

“The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one’s family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.”

“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.”

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

“My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.”

“Books aren’t written - they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”