Sometimes writing can be dark and light at the same time. One I ran across recently is Gray Area:Thinking with a Damaged Brain. Author Floyd Skloot gives a well-written account of what it's like to live a creative life with a brain noticeably damaged by a virus almost 20 years ago.

Skloot goes on (and on) about the frustrating everyday experiences he's enduring as a result of the damage. But he also reveals some gems along the way, like how he's learned to manage some of his creative activities:

The duel is fought over and over. I have developed certain habits that enable me to work — a team of seconds, to elaborate this metaphor of a duel. I must be willing to write slowly, to skip or leave blank spaces where I cannot find words that I seek, compose in fragments and without an overall ordering principle or imposed form. I explore and make discoveries in my writing now, never quite sure where I am going but willing to let things ride and discover later how they all fit together. Every time I finish an essay or poem or piece of fiction, it feels as though I have faced down the insult.

and;

In many important respects, then, I have already gotten better. I continue to learn new ways of living with a damaged brain. I continue to make progress, to avenge the insult, to see my way around the gray area. But no, I am not going to be the man I was. In this, I am hardly alone.

Reading the essay is not always easy going, but it's worth taking a peek at this guy's clearly-written experiences.