Oh the relief!

H.L. Menken

H.L. Mencken once explained why he wrote: "I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk."

Writers probably wouldn't like having their life's work compared to a cow being milked. Even so, Mencken's comment makes sense to me. It's the feeling, not the work, that he is actually talking about. It's the relief a writer feels upon getting one's thoughts, one's ideas, one's words on paper. It's more than just completing a task, a satisfaction in itself. The feeling is less of one of completion than of letting go.

Mencken wrote books, but mostly he wrote essays. meaning that this feeling of relief came frequently, not just once a year or so as might be true of a novelist. My own writing, for newspapers during my career and for this blog after retirement, has also centered on writing short pieces, not book-sized manuscripts. I experience this same feeling over and over again, not unlike that proverbial cow.

When a work, however insignificant, is in progress, tension builds. Deadlines approach. Ideas come at random moments, even when one is not necessarily even thinking about the work. Revision can follow revision. Words, even entire paragraphs are inserted here and there. Passages are rewritten. Doubts come. When one is lucky, inspiration also comes. The tension builds until, finally, publication brings relief. One's mind can turn to other things, perhaps family and friends, that have been neglected.

The udder, so to speak, is empty.