I had a writerly conversation recently ? two, actually ? which seemed almost suspiciously perfect for my first blog post. The first with Bill Clegg (Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man), the second with Joshua Ferris (The Unnamed).
Both are wonderful writers and people. (Both are almost sexuality-questioningly handsome.) And both were talking about whether there are too many forces today that yank the writer from her desk.
Joshua, before a reading at NYU, was concerned that going on tour and writing reviews (and also things like the good old Powell's blog) take away from the "one responsibility of the writer," i.e., the work. And Bill, in a joint interview we did for Smith magazine, was saying that some of the best writers he represents (somehow, he's also a species of megastar agent) don't involve themselves with Twitter or Facebook. I found myself agreeing when these guys were talking ? I do that; I'm a blackboard, and smart people can write their opinions all over me ? but when I thought about it later I wasn't so sure.
In the different context of the mid-20th century, E. M. Forster declared that writers should "only connect." For all the annoyances of Facebook ("I'm working on a novel about dogs; can anyone send me some info on their spaniel?") or Twitter ("Taking a dump right now: Here's a jpeg"), they do bring writers closer to their readers than ever.
Half a Life is my fourth book and first memoir: it's about something terrible that happened when I was in high school. And via Facebook and email, I've gotten literally hundreds of emails from people who were going through similar adversities, or who were just dealing with grief and guilt of some kind. (The book is largely about how to push through guilt you may not deserve and grief you can't express.) And that's been rewarding, helpful for me and the readers, I think. (I didn't set out to write a self-help book ? or so many parentheses ? but I think, if I did my job right, the book is self-helpful.)