TJ Sullivan LA

Independent reporting and commentary from TJ Sullivan, a national award-winning writer, formerly of Los Angeles, now living in Chicago. Sullivan is an author, independent journalist, photographer and college-level journalism instructor who has been featured as a speaker at several national writing conferences. To request an interview, or to inquire about scheduling Sullivan to speak at your event, please include the name and address of your organization and a contact telephone number.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

'A Degree of Monomania'

Thanks to Working With Words for pointing out this piece by David Gessner on some of the challenges of the writing life. Here's a snippet:

It’s fine for writing teachers to talk in self-help jargon about how their lives require “balance” and “shifting gears” between teaching and writing, but below that civil language lurks the uncomfortable fact that the creation of literature requires a degree of monomania, and that it is, at least in part, an irrational enterprise. It’s hard to throw your whole self into something when that self has another job.

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1 comment:

John EttorreTuesday, September 30, 2008 at 7:47:00 AM PDT
That passage really does kind of nail it, doesn't it?
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