Writing: The Lonely Profession?

As I write this it is the 30^th of November 2020, and tomorrow is book launch day!

Of course, 2020 has been blighted by Covid-19 and so it will be a low-key affair, but it’s worth remembering that, as gripes go, it could be a whole lot worse.

Anyway, left alone in my writing cupboard trying to tie up all the loose ends and making sure I have remembered to hit the publish button on multiple websites, I was thinking about the idea of writing as an isolating pastime.

I thrive on being left alone. I am happy in my own head and find it difficult or downright impossible to write much when there are others in the house, except for those rare occasions when I find myself well and truly ‘in the zone’. I do my best thinking and plotting when alone on a dog walk (the dog doesn’t count as company since he doesn’t talk back) or staring at the ceiling above my desk, and from the outside it could appear quite lonely.

So, is it?.

Apart from the myriad characters nesting in my brain, which exist most of the time not as voices in my head but as faces pressed against a window, I also have the pleasure of working with people I would never have met otherwise.

Most of these collaborations are done in the virtual world of email and Whatsapp, but they are still relationships that I would never otherwise have formed. Behind every book there is an army of proof-readers, an editor, an artist, a graphic designer and in one case, a film maker.

I get insights into other people’s bubbles, little glimpses behind the curtains of crafts I had always taken for granted. I can share ideas with creative people on other continents as they sit at their desks and stare at their ceilings, (perhaps that’s just me) with results that are always better than anything I could dream up alone.

‘The Rage Within’ has entered production to be turned into an audiobook, and again, a whole new world of talented and creative people has been opened up, along with new learning curves to climb.

So, is writing a lonely profession?

Certainly not.

There are far too many people involved.