It's the act of grading that I find onerous and loathsome. Writing is work. One of the members of my committee remarked he wished computers were cheaper because when he writes he almost always wants to throw one through a window. Writing is really hard work. However, writing doesn't have to be isolating work.
Writing is a social process that involves readers.
Writers in search of readers can find them in the Writing Center. If you ask a class of students to describe what a writer looks like, the response you generally get is a cross between William Faulkner and Edgar Allan Poe. A writer, always a he, works in a cold, dark place. A writer is disconnected from material reality. A writer is messy, smokes a pipe, and drinks like a fish.