A letter about “Desperation” posed due to LLA HOME page.

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Logan,Every writer is desperate for someone to recognize their talent, to embrace their work. When you have lost that passion, that desperation, you may as well turn out the light and say good night.

I tried to read your chapter one, but at this early hour it was messing with my good chi. I prefer to stick to things that make me feel good or remind me of why I am here. That brings us back to desperation, the reason I am here…to help writers become published authors. That is my passion, my desperation. I hope you don’t mind, but I am going to post this exchange. It could help some of us who are “desperate.”

Jeanie

Jeanie Loiacono							
CEO/President
Loiacono Literary Agency, LLC
448 Lacebark Dr.
Irving, Texas 75063 
912-230-2207
jeanie.loiacono@loiaconoliteraryagency.com  
www.loiaconoliteraryagency.com

On 2/3/2015 5:10 AM, L.B. wrote:

Hi, Mrs. Loiacono.

I received your email yesterday and visited your website.  You had a quote by Charles Bukowski.  “Writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.”

Is this statement true, I thought.  Are writers really desperate people? (Not all of course, but generally/overwhelmingly is this the case?)  If so, WHY are writers desperate people?  Furthermore, why is being desperate “necessary” to write?  (I know this is a “stereotype” of writers and all creative type people in general — being emotionally unbalanced, especially ‘bipolar’, as opposed to the more “stable” left brain thinkers.)

I skimmed Mr. Bukowski’s bio on Wikipedia.  From what I read, it seemed as if he lived what could be termed a “desperate life.”  So, was he just referring to himself with that blanket statement and irresponsibly trying to ‘speak for all writers’?  Or was it based on objective observations [of writers]?  And how many of them did he observe before he reached this conclusion.

One time I spoke with a Scientologist who claimed that the psychiatric industry (in conjunction with the media) aims to convince the public that creative types are emotionally unbalanced and mentally ill in order to convey the underlying message that a whole segment of the populace needs to take pharmaceutical drugs, which turns into profit ($$$) for them.  Interesting theory.  But think about it; where would this stereotype of creative types being [more and in higher ratio] emotionally unbalanced and prone to mental illness originate?  Is it simply true, or is it just something that “everyone” has been suckered into believing?
Why was that quote important to you?  Have you felt desperate throughout your life and you identify with the quote?  Or your husband, maybe — whoever decided to post it on the site.  These aren’t questions for you to answer [to me] — just for you to answer [to yourself], although you probably already know the answers.
She discovered the magic of escaping through the written word and never looked back; had to learn to read so she could go to the “land far, far away” on her own.  It sounds like maybe the reason you wanted to go the the land far, far away is because everyday life (i.e. the “real world”) made you feel desperate, and you needed that magical escape.
Read this and let me know if it provides a magical escape for you.
www.story-of-ox.com  (Be sure to click on “Continuation of Ch. 1” in the upper left menu section right after you finish reading “Beginning of Ch. 1”)
Logan