Ah, solitude!
Sometimes the word is a siren song of peace and productivity. But sometimes a writer’s solitude can go from “alone” to flat-out “lonely.”
Often, writers tend toward introversion—by nature and/or necessity. Our devotion to our craft means our weekends and evenings are spent hunched over a keyboard instead of jet skiing or watching NASCAR. In an interview with The Writer
Writing is something you have to do on your own. You have to take it seriously and be willing to be lonely while you do it.
But what about the moments when that feeling of aloneness becomes overwhelming?
When you can’t help feeling the people in your life don’t have a clue about what drives you as author?
When you start wondering if you’re the only person in the world who struggles with this dual identity: normal person by day, super-secret writer by night?
Or what about the moments when you start wondering if your writing is causing you miss out on something?
When you start wondering if you’re not so much living your life as haunting it?
Sooner or later, every author encounters these feelings. But here’s a truth: you only have to be as alone as you want to be.
4 Tips for Managing a Writer’s Solitude
As important as it is to claim large chunks of uninterrupted writing time, it’s also important you make time to actually live your life. In a Writing Question of the Day conversation on Facebook, Rhonda Rae Baker made the beautiful and undeniable statement that:
A writer has more to say in meaningful ways when they have lived a broad and deep life.
Following are a few tips on balancing a writer’s solitude without letting it become loneliness.
1. Schedule Your Writing Time
Make time to participate in a variety of life experiences, including important relationships.
2. Reach Out to the Writing Community
Particularly in this digital age of Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere, other writers are only a mouse click away. Connect with them, commiserate with them, learn from them, and nurture them. (You can connect with me on my social sites by clicking the icons found in the right column.)
3. Seek out Non-Writing Jobs and Hobbies
If you begin to feel you have no life outside of writing, try broadening your horizon. A career or hobby unrelated to writing may be just the ticket for helping you connect with others and glean new experiences.
4. Connect With Readers
If you’re published, you’re connecting with others simply by putting words on paper for them to read. Reach out to them through social media and other venues (libraries, bookstores, book expos, etc.) and encourage them to interact with you. If you aren’t yet published, you can kill two birds with one stone by jumping into the social-media pool and getting to know your readers before the book deal. By the time you’re ready to sign that million-dollar contract, you’ll have an established platform and hordes of encouraging fans.
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Balancing the advantages and disadvantages of a writer’s solitude will be a lifelong challenge for most of us, but it’s definitely worth tackling. As Lori A. May commented in the May 2010 edition of The Writer,
Writing may be a solitary endeavor, but a writer’s life shouldn’t be.
Wordplayers, tell me your opinion! How do you achieve your need for a writer’s solitude while avoiding loneliness? Tell me in the comments!
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