Diving back into creative writing!

Advice on Writing & Life!

I’ve repeatedly heard that writing is a lonely and solo profession because of the demanding nature of creative thought. Choosing the right words to string into a perfect sentence takes thoughtful and uninterrupted concentration. Building that sentence into full-bodied paragraphs to structure an 85,000 word novel involves thousands of focused hours and a hearty in-house supply of coffee or tea.

There’s a reason we whisper in libraries where other people are absorbing great thoughts and it has nothing to do with disturbing the books housed on the shelves. It’s about the way we activate our minds to think through and construct creative thoughts.

Distractions are the bane of my output. Once I’m in the flow and I get disturbed it’s almost impossible to pick up the threads of that broken creative thought and successfully knit it back together. Sure, I might get the original idea down on paper, but somehow the elegance of that thought evaporates under my questing fingers even as I strive to recapture it. My readers may never know that the thought break occurred, but I still flinch whenever I re-read that recast sentence knowing that somehow something better was lost.

Some writers are better at this necessary self-isolation because they have naturally introverted personalities. These writers are happiest when left alone to explore their vision and build their brave new worlds. Introverts generally hate marketing and self-promotion side of the business although they admit it’s a necessary evil. Extroverted writers use self-discipline to block off specific hours of each day cut off from the distraction of family and friends to ensure they hit their daily word count.

Both approaches are right. Writers know that we need to do whatever it takes to get our stories told. The personal irony is that as soon as I’m finished with one story, I dive back into creating the next one again.