a writerly diagnosis

There's a great interview in the Guardian with Terry Pratchett (via Neil). Pratchett is one of my favourite authors, and when I heard last year he had a rare type of early-onset Alzheimer's I was greatly saddened. But as he pointed out, "'I am not dead.' I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this may be further off than you think - it's too soon to tell."

He is incredibly prolific; according to the interview he has written his Discworld novels at a rate of 2 per year since 1983. That's staggering! I can't imagine such an incredible output, but I do appreciate it (more delicious books for me to read). But it's encouraging to know that even though he is so gifted, he still struggles with the whole process as much as anyone else:

"When I was going in for the tests, they asked my wife and PA to say what they had noticed in my behaviour. They jointly wrote a letter saying, 'Like any author who's in the throes of writing a book, Terry probably shows all the signs of dementia: he's unworldly, he doesn't pay attention to things, he's antisocial, grumpy.' I'm a typical bloody writer. Maybe all of us have had Alzheimer's for years without realising it."