Writer's Drug

On another email loop I'm on, another author was talking about the baseball/steroid hearings and asked a provocative question. She said she was watching these hearings and taking the moral high road and started thinking - what if there was a drug a writer could take that would make the ideas gel and the words flow effortlessly? And what if this drug had potentially bad side effects, even death? Would you take it? Would you even be tempted?

I was tempted to ignore the risks an shout "YES!!! Count me in!" But then as I get older, the risks loom larger and more frightening. When I was younger, I think (along with tons of other young people) I felt invulnerable. Unstoppable. I think a lot of the steroid users think that way. The long term effects won't harm them. (Not that I'm old, mind you! I'm not even what I consider middle-aged yet!)

When my daughter was in high school and college, she had a boyfriend of many years who, unbeknownst to us, used steroids. After they broke up and she went through that pain, she told me he had used them, and had low self-esteem, etc etc. Even after a doctor had examined him due to some heart problems and warned him, he continued to use them. In his eyes, the benefits outweighed the risks. When I was thinking about this hypothetical writing drug, I could feel the seductive pull of it and the greed of it, and can sympathize. Sad, but true. Maybe it's just human nature.

But what a thought provoking comment.

Writing is hard work - sweat, blood, and tears. Hours of butt- in - chair, backache, headache, fingers jarring, work! Fun yes, but still hard. Yet I wouldn't trade it for the world.