Writing ought to be of interest to academics because research is not complete until reported. Yet little is known about attitudes toward writing or the skills it requires. Both of us (a geographer and a psychologist respectively) enjoy writing, and had independently formed the impression that such enjoyment was far from universal. To find out how our colleagues viewed the matter, we distributed a questionnaire to the entire academic staff of University College London in the summer term of 1976. Here we discuss replies to our first question: 'how much do you enjoy the actual process of writing?'. The response rate was low, with only 170 replies (17 per cent) received. Many of our colleagues find writing immensely enjoyable, others excruciatingly distasteful, most a combination of the two. One estimated his usual feeling about writing as threequarters of the way along a line from love to hate. Most respondents saw getting started as the most difficult part of writing. 'I can think of an infinity of excuses for not embarking', wrote one; 'once started it's much easier to keep going.' Another never thought he was going to enjoy writing before he started, and was relieved when he found he had finished. Once started, he was often too absorbed to notice the effort.