How seriously can writers take themselves? The answer, clearly, is extremely seriously. Maybe the real question is: How seriously should writers take themselves? The unsatisfying answer? It depends.

H.G. Wells had a definitive view on the subject. A spouting font of words, he produced everything from his still-beloved science fiction work to biographies, comedies, essays, you name it. Unsurprisingly, he did not want (or have time) to be too fussy about things.

In his Experiment in Autobiography, Wells declares himself proudly not an artist but a “journalist”:

If sometimes I am an artist it is a freak of the gods. I am journalist all the time and what I write goes now—and will presently die…

This may be a bit much for some people, who are not used to the ephemeral nature of journalism (copy today, fish wrap tomorrow). A more easily digestible declaration comes right after:

I write as I walk because I want to get somewhere and I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there…

Henry James might disagree. But getting from Point A to Point B with a minimum of fuss is never bad advice.