The different modes of writing

I've written professionally in just about every form there is: scripts for the stage, screen, radio; short fiction, novels; non-fiction including newspaper and magazine journalism, memoir; libretti, poetry, songwriting. Having pretty much covered the bases over my career, I come away with preferences and opinions.

• For me, the most "fun" writing is screenwriting. I think this is because one can tell such large stories with such minimal language -- it's a storyteller's form more than a writer's form. At the same time, no form of writing is more frustrating or depressing after the work is done, that is, in the marketing arena.
• The most difficult writing I do is the novel or novella. Or even short fiction. Fiction is so difficult because it is more about language than about story, at least in the forms of fiction I write (literary, as opposed to pop fiction). I am still struggling for the tone of the new novella, for example, and the pains of discovery here are greater than in other forms of writing.
• The most magical writing, when it is working, is writing for the stage, that is, for actors so talented that they bring their own artistry to the material and show you things you didn't know you had written. This is a marvelous experience.
• Poetry, for me, is the most mysterious writing. The poems just show up in my head. I have no sense of "writing them" the way I write everything else.
• Writing a libretto to an opera is also a great experience if the music is great, and I've been lucky, working with a composer I admire, John Nugent.

For my time left, I suspect most of my work will be in writing the short novel, even if it is the most difficult. It also is the most personal and true to the solitary vision and experience of the writer. In old age, this counts for everything.