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This whole thread is deeply interesting, even the digressions on “who’d want to marry a writer?” (that perennial question) and group hugs. (I for one like my personal space and rarely give it up when I can help it to an ordinary one-to-one hug. Group hugs are just weird.) And I know exactly what @Hope-ann means when she says if you’re surrounded by Feelers you have to be logical just for the sake of providing a rounded perspective. It really is that way.

The main discussion of how writing feeds our lives and our lives feed our writing is well worth having. I don’t have anything new to contribute, except that it does actually work that way and you feel silly when you realize how long it took to get that. And by the same token books are far more than just an escape; as I think Daeus said, you can learn a lot from reading about other people’s experiences (in fiction) when you’d never be able to have those experiences and so couldn’t learn from experiences yourself. Learning from other people’s mistakes so you don’t have to make so many of your own is always good.

I have strong opinions on the books-as-merely-escape thing, owing to a creative writing teacher who repeatedly attacked the idea that fiction is good for anything more than that. You can avoid the “everything must be allegory” trap without falling into the “everything is ultimately without applicability” hole on the other side. (C. f. Tolkien, Monsters and Critics, etc. Tolkien is so good.)

@kate, by the way, where’d your blog go?