"Reader, I married him"

Those of you who know me, will gather that the above headline isn't my own quirky way of announcing recent nuptials. If you're of a more literary bent, you might also recognise the phrase. It's the first line of the last chapter of one of the most enduring classics of all time, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847. It's one of my favourite books and one of only two that I've struggled through in four languages, just for the hell of it (the other is Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier).
Why is it that a tale of a penniless orphan and governess, Jane Eyre, who falls in love with a rich, older man, is so enduring, so timeless?
Or, perhaps the real question to ask is, why is it that a bestseller such as Bridget Jones's Diary, read and loved by millions now nearly 20 years ago, already feels dated?

In this day and age there's perhaps more writing "out there" - on the net, in print - than ever before. Ironically, even though there's seemingly a much greater need for the written word, writers are at the same time finding it increasingly hard to make a living. That ever-crucial dilemma ensues... If you truly take your time about your writing, chances are you will not make ends meet. But if you don't take the time over your writing, if you don't care enough about your writing, then what are you actually putting out there for people to read? And who will remember it? Good writing lasts. But with the dawn of the internet, so does bad writing, to a much greater extent. Books go out of print, newspapers and magazines disappear even more quickly, but the things you write on the internet have a whole different lifespan. Logically it should follow that we are therefore far more careful about what we write here, in this space, but instead the opposite happens. In forums that anyone can read, people are in such a rush to express themselves that spelling, grammar and everything else goes out of the window - and this despite there actually being an easy-to-use programme, invented for just such occasions, called "spellchecker".

The desire to express an opinion, or to make a quick buck, has become far more important than the content of what we write and I'm as guilty of this as any other writer, in that I sometimes find myself churning out features faster than I ought to.
I do, however, have a hidden "advantage". It's a little known fact, but on my father's side, I hail from a long line of Swedish dyslexics (can you imagine the hardship? Swedish has three additional letters, å, ä, and ö). This isn't something you'd particularly boast about as a writer, I know. So, how can I possibly see this as an advantage? Because being mildly dyslexic forces me to slow down in my work, it forces me to re-read things carefully time and again, in order for me to be able to spot my own mistakes, and still there are times when I fail to spot them (luckily that's why god invented editors).

We may not all be Charlotte Brontë, in fact, most of us probably don't harbour any such ambition, but writing has such power to it, such endless possibilities of both inventing and capturing moments. It deserves time, thought and space, even while we're trying to make a living.