Although a writer ideally may wish "to help man endure by lifting his heart," paradoxically his immediate concerns must focus on the technical problems of his craft. The compulsion to write and the creative process itself are difficult to analyze. The gifted writer takes all experience to himself and imaginatively transforms the real world into his own private world. His only ethic is to be true to his own intense perspective of reality and to the artistic demands of each work's particular form. Because subject, form, and expression inextricably affect each other, the writer must have a conceptual sense of the whole as he writes, with provision for his characters to develop freely. Then, when the work is complete, he must become a rigorous self critic. His only enduring reward will be that, as he deals candidly with the joys, triumphs, and hurts of life, he will exorcise old ghosts and open up new creative vistas for himself. (JB)