I think addiction is an organic and necessary faculty of human beings. It’s our brain’s way of learning but when it results in self damaging or harmful behavior, we label it ‘addiction’ instead of the more accurate ‘learned behavior’ or ‘habituated response’. We learn to drive a car using the mechanism of addiction. It’s all automatic behavior. The idea is that your brain is imprinted with the physical moves, the vocabulary and the emotional underpinnings that hold the structure together. You’re a driver when you no longer have to think about each of the discrete acts that driving requires.

I’m a writer, and have been for a long time. I’ve written tons of stories, poems, essays, letters and notes-to-self that will never reach the public eye. I write naturally and fairly easily; the words and ideas emerge from gestation conjoined. Please understand, that does not guarantee quality. Quality usually requires additional work — grammar, spelling, balance, structure, internal logic and strength of thought — all these must be reviewed, considered carefully and changed where necessary. That’s called editing. With that (long) proviso, let me repeat that writing for me is a habituated process.

I am an addict.

And like all addicts, I need an enabler.

Enter the Buffalo Writers Meetup Group.

I’ve been a member of the group since about 2010, I think, and it has been an important part of my life ever since. It’s where i went to feel like a writer, to be with people who understood what i was doing and what i wanted, deep down inside, where i was afraid to look. In a meetup ‘i’ could identify with ‘I’ and didn’t have to be afraid.

I was accepted and assisted. There was no rejection here, only helpful criticism and encouragement and over the years I’ve made some friends there. I love them all.

Without reservation I encourage, no urge, any aspiring writer to find a writer’s group that you can join.

You’ve everything to gain.