Hello world!

“Hello world!” is, of course, the default post title for one’s very first WordPress blog post.  It seemed oddly apropos to leave it there.

My name is Sheila O’Shea and I am a writer.  I am a writer the way other people are smokers and drinkers–writing is a habit for me, a compulsive one that eases the pains of day-to-day living and leaves me out of sorts if I don’t indulge in it on a regular basis.  Unlike tobacco and alcohol, the pen-and-paper industry doesn’t seem to have the same advertising budget to get more people hooked on their product in the way that I make use of it.  This seems a shame, since of all three habits, writing is the least damaging to one’s health and well-being.

This is not a blog about fiction writing or freelance writing.  (My thoughts on fiction will be confined to a different blog.)  This about the addiction of writing for oneself, of different ways and techniques to make use of the written word to clear the head, untangle problems or simply to pass the time.  You don’t have to have ambitions as a professional writer to make use of them.  I offer these notions to the world in the hopes that more people will share my addiction, so the next time I’m caught out without a pen, I’ll have an easier time bumming one from somebody else . . .