Writing can be a solitary business (you know the old cliché of the writer in his garrett at the top of some ricketty old appartment block…), but I’ve realised that the one thing I really need to write is too not be in a vacumn. I need other writers, writing around me, to keep me going.
solitaryway has mentioned recently, being dependent on a small red wirebound notebook […] writing in it madly – and this brought to mind my stack of A6 size, 0.5cm squared, spiral-bound notebooks that go back to 1991 (I have carried one with me without fail everywhere I have been ever since). This said, I realise now that in recent years, I have not been filling my notebooks with the plethora of writing, story notes and poetry, as I once did. Throughout the Alsager Years I was in daily contact with fellow writers and living and breathing words, whereas in recent years, I have been a solitary voice amongst people who read, yes, but who don’t themselves write. That is, until this last year…
In tinyjo‘s answers to my interview questions she writes about what LiveJournal means to her:
The other point here though is that the reason that this works for me is that it’s a conversation. I’ve never been able to keep a private diary – it just feels strange and almost pretentious. […] It’s not just going out into the void. I love to be able to get comments on my posts and as I take other perspectives on board and discuss new ways of seeing a situation that is also helping me to find new ways of thinking about/dealing with it and my emotions.
For me, I’ve found that LiveJournal has put me back in touch with writers and as a result the amount of my creativity has increased. Earlier this year I found myself pacing myself with soulsong and her novel, and more recently with the daily wordcount of siren_songs. I’ve also found amongst the community a number of fellow, practising (and even published) writers with whom I discuss online and by email/instant messenger, plot, character, and style, the development of my writer. It’s a useful place to critique our own and other’s work, and keeps my writing.
I’m glad that I’m no longer on my own. I’m glad I’m not still in that vacumn.
I feel much the same. I find your posts inspiring, they really do fuel me with energy to keep at it. I’m definitely the sort of writer who needs contact and interaction with other writers. I have an online network of fellow writers, which is brilliant. Excellent post, sums it all up perfectly 🙂
I was thinking about this post during the drive to work this morning, and it was so much better then that it is now that I’ve got the words down.
Then again, isn’t that always the way, that you *write* your best stuff, when you aren’t actually in a position to write it down? Maybe I should consider investing in an underwater/waterproof PDA for when I’m swimming?!!!
I keep a pen and notebook on me whenever I’m out and about, but inevitably have my best ideas when I’m in the shower or something, and equally inevitably said brilliant ideas have gone by the time I’m in a position to write them down 🙂
I was thinking, do you think that it’s actually a form of *jealousy* at work there. This other person is writing, and it’s going well, and you want to have some of *that*. I sometimes feel that, and you know, I’m not so sure that that’s such an unhealthy form of jealousy to have…?
I’ve been thinking about this. Jealousy is always seen as a negative, but I don’t think that’s necessarily always the case. Reading a brilliant novel always spurs me on to try to write something equally brilliant – which doesn’t diminish my admiration for the original novel, just means that I want to write as well as I possibly can.
Jealous? Me? Yes…
It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in that then… ^__^