Writing is a solitary art. We write alone. We edit alone. We rip our manuscripts apart and start over alone. No one else can pluck our words from our heads and put them down on paper. Only the writer. Often writers are also quiet people, and spend a great deal of time alone due to our art.
But publishing is a social business. It requires a completely different skill-set. It demands that writers reject their nature in order to be successfully published. Pitches. Presentations. Meetings. Marketing. Many very social activities.
As a writer, how do you balance the solitary side and the social side?
I am a mix of the two characters. I am quiet one minute and needing peace, then I need to mix with others. Maybe it is to absorb more material I don't know but having been a nurse, I find I can switch on the charm even when feeling rough.I think I might be ok when I need to market to a crowd of readers ;0
ReplyDeleteIt must be hard for the shy writer, in fact I am sure it must be one of the horrors for some.
I am a little of both. I am a quiet person, but I go a bit stir-crazy when I don't have any sort of social interaction for any length of time.
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