Do You Love Your Writing?

First watch this

This video struck a chord with me when I realised that when I wrote words to sell, I didn’t love those words. I was too busy laying out each syllable like a body on a vivisectionist’s table, peering at the entrails to see what made it tick, and in doing so I had stripped anything pleasurable from it.  I was expecting my readers to be necrophiliacs, to obtain pleasure from what is essentially, dead.

There was a time when I reveled in the crafting of my writing. Putting together words and phrases so they fitted neatly; a game of Tetris with letters. That was back when the words were for marks and credits and distinctions, not for cash. When cash came to the party, the novelty was short lived. Deadlines and editors loomed and love turned to the desire to avoid the lash of these new masters.

So how to resuscitate the love of my writing? Can I do so with a single kiss of realisation; or as I suspect, labour over the body until my sweat and aching limbs bring it back to life? Will the effort be worth the reward?

/self-absorbed drivel