What's Behind the Urge to Write?

Recently, a friend wondered about whether to write a blog, and it got me thinking about writers' motives. George Orwell, in a well-known essay titled "Why I Write," laid out the "four great motives" of authors: sheer egotism (the desire to leave an individual mark), aesthetic enthusiasm (pleasure in the beauty of prose), historical impulse (to reveal the truth of the world as it is), and political purpose (to push the world in a certain direction). Orwell cited political purpose as his main motive for works such as Nineteen Eighty-Four. In contrast, Joan Didion, known for literary journalism in works such as The Year of Magical Thinking, cites an internal intellectual impluse: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." So why do I write? Well, Orwell's and Didion's motives may be involved, but, when it comes to fiction, I admit to being driven by an inner compulsion, an ultimately irresistible force of story and characters that demand release into words of pain, pleasure, fear and hope, words that are a revelation both surprising and familiar to me. Author Judy Blume has echoed this feeling: “Those of us who write do it because there are stories inside us burning to get out. Writing is essential to our well-being.” Yet the result is not just relief from the pressure of bottled ideas and feelings (author Anne Rice would call them "obsessions") but incomparable pleasure, which is perhaps my ultimate motive for writing. As Neil Gaiman, author of comic books and the award-winning fantasy novel American Gods, explains, writers "get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising… and it’s magic and wonderful and strange." In this way, writers and artists share with prophets the special ecstasy of inspiration--whether it comes profanely from within or divinely from above. See what other famous authors say about motives for writing: http://flavorwire.com/303590/15-famous-authors-on-why-they-write

A Chill in the Air With These Fall Mystery Imports

Cooler, darker fall days are around the corner, so it's time to stock up on mysteries for cozy holiday reading--including several foreign imports. If you miss genius punk hacker Lisbeth Salander, read The Girl in the Spider's Web by Sweden's David Lagercrantz, who continues the series of the deceased Stieg Larsson. This time Salander and unlikely investigative partner journalist Mikael Blomkvist take on the case of enigmatic computer scientist Frans Balder, a prominent expert in artificial intelligence ensnared in a global intrigue that even involves America's National Security Agency. The New York Times review praises Lagercrantz's "instinctive feel for the world Larsson created," his characterizations and high-velocity writing despite a less-than-convincing plot. Meanwhile, British author Ruth Ware has a debut for those who liked Paula Hawkins' best-selling Girl on the Train. In a Dark, Dark Wood is a psychological thriller in which reclusive crime writer Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is invited by a friend she hasn’t seen in years to a weekend party in an eerie glass house deep in the English countryside. Forty-eight hours later, Lee/Nora wakes up in a hospital bed with the knowledge that someone is dead and wondering not only "what happened?" but "what have I done?" Then there is Those We Left Behind by Stuart Neville, author of the popular Belfast crime series featuring DI Jack Lennon. Those We Left Behind is a standalone mystery set in Northern Ireland and centers around Ciaran Devine, who made headlines seven years earlier as the 12-year-old “schoolboy killer" whose confession to the brutal murder of his foster father mitigated the sentence of his older brother. Now Ciaran's release brings big trouble to his probation officer DCI Serena Flanagan, who has always harbored doubts about his confession. Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, Louise Penny has brought back Chief Inspector Armand Gamache for an 11th installment set in the quaint Quebec village of Three Pines. The Nature of the Beast begins with the disappearance of a little boy who always cried wolf--except perhaps one of his tall tales was dangerously true. A search for the boy uncovers murder, an old crime, an old betrayal, and some soul-searching for Gamache. For more top fall mysteries, see the Publishers Weekly list: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/67177-fall-2015-announcements-mysteries-the-mystery-thriller-boom.html

Why Are Colleges Becoming Mental Crisis Centers?

Young people are flooding college campuses, but the upbeat excitement of my college days is apparently an anachronism. According to a recent Psychology Today article titled "Crisis U," colleges "are being transformed into something more akin to mental health wards than citadels of learning." Declares the article, "Whether troubled Facebook posts or middle-of-the-night cries to independent support services like Crisis Text Line, such messages, along with class absences, disturbing writing in course assignments, or direct threats to fac­ulty, are a new common core of college life." Per the University of Michigan's Healthy Minds Study cited in the article, 22% of the nation's collegians seek therapy or counseling each year, 19% of college students regularly take psychotropic drugs (antidepressants, anxiolytics, and stimulants such as Adderall), and self-harm is commonplace, with close to one in five students engaging in cutting, burning, or other form of self-mutilation. What in the world is going on? The leading mental health concern in 2015 is anxiety: 54% of all college students report feeling overwhelming anxiety, according to American College Health Association surveys quoted. And the universally cited precipitant of anxiety is stress. Yet stress itself is not the problem (I doubt it's higher than in the past); in fact, research shows stress actually enhances performance, especially when viewed positively. The problem is how students handle stress. Without basic coping skills, every frustration, competitive challenge, romantic disappointment, or social media insecurity turns into an overwhelming stressor. Another recent Psychology Today article by Diane Dreher, coach and author, puts the blame for the coping failure on parents who are "protecting their children from failure while pressuring them to excel, doing their homework, making their decisions, and micromanaging their lives," and thus creating students who have "difficulty dealing with the challenges of college life because they’ve been denied the opportunity to develop age-appropriate cognitive function," she writes. "Insecure, confused, and emotionally fragile, they experience high anxiety and chronic stress, which further weakens their cognitive ability." Experts urge parents to instead encourage unstructured play, provide honest criticism and praise, encourage children to solve their own problems, and give increasing responsibility. Dreher suggests some reading for concerned parents: How to raise an adult: Break free of the overparenting trap and prepare your kid for success by J. Lythcott-Haims; A nation of wimps by H.E. Marano; and The gift of failure: How the best parents learn to let go so their children can succeed by J. Lahey. For more on the college mental health crisis: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201509/crisis-u

Falling Fertility Creates a Future We May Not Like

Recently CNN's Fareed Zakaria touched on the problem of falling fertility rates in developed countries in his regular "GPS" segment, citing data from Europe and Japan of birth rates below the 2.1 births per woman needed for replacement of existing populations. "Not only will some countries’ population shrink, they will also get older. Europe’s over 65 crowd will increase to over a quarter of the population there by 2050, according to the U.N. Japan’s will be over 1/3," Zakaria pointed out. "That means that already cash-strapped countries will have higher bills to pay to provide retirees with pension and health benefits." A country with a shrinking, aging population faces economic contraction, rising labor costs, falling real estate values, a smaller pool of innovative talent, and more conservative politics--a future very different from previous assumptions of continual growth and social improvement. The U.S. is part of the trend; our national fertility rate hit a record low in 2013, and our population is forecast to grow only because of immigration (add that to the political debate over immigration). Why the disinterest in procreating? Education, career and financial opportunities--especially for women--plus social acceptance of birth control are cited. But I wondered if there's something deeper at work, too. Consider a July Huffington Post survey of childless women, which found 270 explanations for the decision to remain "childfree," which boiled down to some combination of four basic reasons: prioritizing career, dislike of children, bad relationship with parents, avoidance of the financial responsibility, and preference for an existing (childless) lifestyle. Apparently, a growing percentage of women consider motherhood a negative factor in their personal happiness equation. So developed countries can try to boost baby-making via peppy campaigns, economic incentives and social support programs, but the fertility fall is unlikely to be cured by tax credits and slogans. We seem set on a future we may not like. For the Huffington Post survey: http://data.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/choosing-childfree?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000030