Writing and the loner

One comment that often comes up is that writing is a lonely, solitary business. Well, in terms of the fact that you are generally alone when creating the work, that’s true. However, I don’t find it lonely or solitary. Or maybe, what I should say is that I LIKE that it’s lonely and solitary.

I am an introvert, and as such I require time alone on occasion or I will go mad. Quite literally. I’ve gone within a hair’s breadth of it recently and am now feeling much revived and enthused after Hubby went away last Thursday and I’ve had hours – even an entire day – alone. Poor Hubby, at times very unwanted. So being a writer, having to lock myself away and just be with myself and the story, suits me to the ground.

I find, however, that it’s not lonely cause I always have the company of the characters. Generally it is solitary (which I’ve made clear I like), but I’m also lucky enough to have a wonderful writing group with whom writing occasionally becomes very much a social experience. When I stop and think about it, I’m not really creating the work alone – there are friends I talk with about it, friends who help me solve problems, friends who read it and offer their feedback.

I wonder how people who are extraverted, social types go with the hours required to lock yourself away from real human contact and work on your manuscript, particularly during the editing process when you can even lose the companionship of your characters as you delve in the minutiae of things like word choice. Perhaps it is from them that the idea of writing being lonely has come.

When I think of all the jobs I’ve had over the years – teaching, journalism, retail – all of which require near-constant social interaction, it’s no wonder that I’ve become so desirous of making fiction writing my career. A life where I have to be alone, nearly every day? Sounds blissful.