reasons to write

I’ve been dipping in and out of a rather pleasurable book about writing. Most people read books about writing for utilitarian reasons – to find a new technique, to see something that might inform their own work, to seek explanations for particular conventions. And so on.There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these kinds of informative writing books – I write them myself so I’m quite glad people want to read them. And I buy and read other people’s informative writing books so that I can add to what I know, and perhaps challenge some of the ways I think about things.

But Idoread books about writing for the sheer pleasure of it. SomeI buy for no other reason than I like to be provoked, tantalised, intrigued, or amused by someone’s writing about writing.I’m currently finishing off a book about writing by Mark Edmundson. It’s called Why write? A master class on…