I’m over at Writers in the Storm today talking about why writers need to get out of their caves and connect with other people. I can tell you, it has made a HUGE difference in my life, and my writing. I would love to hear your comments!
What do you imagine the most productive writing life to look like? The most creative? The most dedicated? Do you imagine it, like I often do, to look like a cabin hidden away in the woods with no wi-fi and food that appears with the snap of your fingers? Do you imagine a life of coffee shops and really good noise-cancelling headphones? I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve often created elaborate fantasies of being imprisoned if that was what it took to shut the rest of the world out so I could focus solely on my novel. In today’s world, the expectations on our time and energy has grown exponentially, but I’m finding that solitude isn’t actually the best way to be the most healthy, and therefore, the most productive, creative, or dedicated writer.
We’ve all heard the story–the one about the writer who finally earns enough money with her work (or not, but has other means of financial support) that she quits her day job to focus all her time on her writing. And then she writes nothing. For months. She got everything she thought she always wanted (what we all want) but once she finally got it, things began to unravel.
We’re Humans First
Over the last week I’ve engrossed myself in the book Daring Greatly by Brene Brown (some of you maybe familiar with her viral TEDx Talk of the same subject). Reading this book has confirmed everything I’ve been suspecting over the last few years since I moved 800 miles away from all the people I loved to find myself with no friends, no family, and no idea how to start to rebuild my tribe. Sure, I didn’t have dinner commitments, no one stopped by my house unexpectedly, and my weekends were wide open, but not only did my happiness and mental health suffer greatly, but so did my writing.
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