Writing is, so E.L. Doctorow would have it, a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. As quotes go, I find that one just a tad depressing. Mainly because it has a smidgeon of truth to it, for me at least, I would never presume to know how other writers write, but I have many a conversation with non-existent people in my own mind. Some of which get written down, so of which disappear into the ether…

Writing is, in many ways, my way to dealing with the world. It is often frustrating, demanding and drives me to distraction. It often is a case of framing my thoughts and neurosis in such as way that I can process them. Why this tends to be fiction is simply because fiction is the easiest way to put a lay of separation between what I write and my thoughts. A separation I need to be there.

My fiction is, in many ways, a by product of my coping mechanisms. It always has been I think, though when I first starting writing in my late teens I didn’t understand the why of it. What I do know is that without writing, published or not, I would have struggled far more over the years. It is my therapy, and often my source of joy. No matter how difficult it can be, it is central to my mental health, and how I face the world. Also, as Steinem eloquently puts it…