Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson are guest posting at the Borders sci-fi blog, Babel Clash, this week -- good times. More writing about writing. (Can you tell what I've been thinking about lately?)
http://bordersblog.com/scifi/EDIT: On the topic of feeling pressured by all the WRITE, DO IT NOW talk, I feel like I have to point out that imperatives like that are really only directed at the people who have an interest in it. If someone is telling you to do something you're not interested in doing, why would you say anything but "thanks, but no thanks"? I admit a book festival is another animal. But if you answer a person (perhaps even a
writer) who asks the question, "Do you
write?" with something approximating "sometimes/I used to/not anymore"
at an event about books, well, of course they're going to suggest you get out there and Just Do It. That whole scenario implies the very thing John Scalzi ranted against: wanting to, but never making the time to do what you want to do.
In other words, this is also something I've been thinking about lately, but from the giving side. I hesitate to tell people what to do/what I'm going to do for fear of influencing their feelings/opinions/making them feel pressured, but goddamnit I have to assume SOMEONE has backbone enough to say "Thanks, not for me" and/or understands the context. If I don't, I'm going to spend my entire life hiding behind social assumptions.