Yesterday, I read a blog post, Creativity and Rejection: Is There a Link? It was quite interesting, including a snippet of a much-bleeped interview with Janis Joplin, so I forwarded the email to a group of writer friends. The conversation that followed has been fascinating.

Many posts have focused on the kind of childhood one had (happy or lonely or abusive) and whether the author leans toward a darker, more pessimistic personality type, prone to depression, or whether the author leans toward...