This is a great series -- I can pull from each and every post. I also write because I’m insecure, depressed, angry, joyous, drunk, grouchy, vindictive bored and yes -- full of shit. Getting laid and rich... I'm working on that.

Courtney: When you nail down the laid and rich part, we'll have to do an exclusive GITS Q&A. I'm sure there will be a sizable number of GITS readers interested in how to pull that off.

The reason I told that badly constructed, melodramatic, fake story is to tell you this real one: I write because it is the only way to get paid for being full of shit.

This is my favorite reason so far.

I write because as horrible as writing is, having written something is pure pleasure.

There's an entry in Steven Soderbergh's book Getting Away With It where he talks about writing and how much he hates it and how much he likes having written, and jokes that this may be the result of a chemical imbalance. I wonder if there have ever been any studies about this, because I think it might be literally true.

Consider it done!

"I write because as horrible as writing is, having written something is pure pleasure." I doubt there's a writer alive who doesn't resonate with that. Sounds like a writing mantra to me.