Certainly it’s not the physical act of sitting down alone and writing (I’ve written a thesis and several hundred advertisements, so I’m no stranger to the process). It’s more the (idea of) the freedom which the writer’s life offers: the ability to do it anywhere, anytime; to have good reason to attend to and enjoy the minutiae of life; to be able to loaf around and call it research. Currently reading Margaret Atwood’s Negotiating with the Dead; not sure if it’ll give me any more insight, but the journey’s worthwhile.