Isolation and the Writer
Is it necessary? Is it pernicious?
There’s a mythology about the writer who lurks in a garret, producing work of coruscating brilliance. Most of us don’t have so much luck! We have to write surrounded by family members, dogs, cats, deadlines, requests to cook, clean, drive people to places, collect dry cleaning, finish this report, come out for a long lunch, leave that until tomorrow, help me do this, look at that lovely sunset, listen to my joke, answer the phone, resolve this dispute, advise on my love life, tell me what you think of this outfit, polish shoes, clean up mess, find my keys …
Yes, most of us would love a bit of garret isolation.
But too much isolation can be damaging. It leads to sitting at the keyboard feeling depressed and sure that everybody else is succeeding and you are failing. It leads to literary myopia and narrow vision. It can lead to writer’s block.
I wish there were some definitive study about where fiction writers write, and why. I know I write better standing up (I have a special stand up desk) and often produce better dialogue if I write on the bus or in a cafe than at home, possibly because I subconsciously pick up the conversations around me and produce more authentic speech patterns as a result. I also know that for scenes of high drama or complex plot twists I need to be left completely alone, with not even the radio or a barking dog to disturb me.
So what works for you?
4 Comments
Tribeless
5th October 2006I write best in my office very late at night, or early morning when everything is calm and the phone is not going. The pooch is allowed to stay (well, until she starts farting – Great Dane, so it the air can get pretty thick), but the lovely wife has to go to bed and read so I have silence and no distractions.
That’s for creative writing. Not so picky where I edit.
Regards Mark Hubbard
kathrynoh
6th October 2006I normally write at home then print off a hard copy and leave the house for a coffee and to read/edit. I think often the coffee is the carrot to get me writing.
Although I wrote what I consider my best short story sitting in my car waiting for the longest freight train to cross! Got an idea and wrote down fragments on scrapes of paper.
P. A. Moed
6th October 2006I’m from the writing in the garret school when I’m in the country, but when I’m in the city, I enjoy writing at the cafe! Schizophrenic, isn’t it? But I do think a certain amount of quiet is necessary so you can really hear the inner muse.
Antonios Maltezos
10th October 2006My brother in law is a hunter. Every year for a couple of weeks, he goes off into the deep wilderness in search of the perfect moose head. And every year, I think the same thing — what a waste. We do need those distractions, Kay, to enrich our lives with detail, a first-hand knowledge of how things work out. But still, a couple weeks a year in a cabin up north wouldn’t be so bad.