In which I talk of catharsis. How pretentious, huh?

Writing is a truly cathartic experience. It allows us to revisit the past, to alter scenarios and outcomes, and ultimately (thankfully) to let things go. As you get older you become more self-possessed. You know more what you want in life, and especially what you don't. It's this self-awareness that defines our character.

In the same sense writing allows us to examine human behavior on a micro scale. To examine emotions we don't particularly understand and human foibles we're blessed enough to lack. I am a singularly determined person; and some people are not, they're capricious. Maybe that's not a fault, to be able to move on to the next thing as soon as it presents itself. But in writing I can understand the motivation behind it.

That's also the curse of being a writer: you spend so much time creating personalities and sussing out the genesis of human behavior, that people often--not always--fail to surprise you. It almost gives you a cynical interpretation of the world.

It's made me a much more self-aware person. The people I love in this world, I love. Because of, not in spite of, their faults. It's also taught me what I don't want in my life. This is the hardest thing to accomplish: letting something go completely. Because of my long association with designing human fallacy, I have no place for it in my life.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to writing my story about a martian freeloader!

-WK

P.S. Updating bibliography soon, hopefully.