Writers and would-be writers in Early Work

In the second section of Andrew Martin's Early Work we learn some of the back story of the narrator - whose name I don't remember - and the woman whom he is smitten with, Leslie. Her history in particular is of interest. We meet her a few years back when she is a 20-something living in squalor (but still obviously in a pricey apt) somewhere inlower Manhattan , and we see her spend a great deal of time having sex w both men and women, drinking and imbibing cocaine as much as possible, and despite various references to her shortage of money spending lots of dough on expensive restaurants and shows. What to make of this? The ethosnof this novel seems to suggest that aspiring young writers need not spend any of their precious time actually writing - youth for a writer seems to be a time to gain experience, to be stored away and drawn on as material in some future, more settled space. And perhaps that is Martin's history - he might be the rare bird of riotous youth recollected in tranquillity. But I sense what we see here is a set of young people who want to "be" writers without actually wanting to "write." It's like watching a crash about to happen - disturbing, unsettling, hard to turn away from.

RIP friend WS (not Willm Shakespeare), a great reader, writer, friend,gone after 5 years of struggle