Writers, I urge you to emerge from your caverns
Legend has it that if you are patient enough, you will see a writer out and about among the regular folk.
If you are an avid reader and writer, it is more common than not that you are a quiet and introverted soul and, as such, you need a time and place where you can be uninterrupted for hours, even days. I believe I speak in the name of many when I say that we, writers, wish for our own hole in the ground. To sit in silence, to plot, to outline, to write, to let our creativity spill into the dreadful blank page.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with all of this, but every once in a while, we should come up for air. Join a reading club, start dancing, give a shot to life drawing and modelling (if you have the guts), and why not go on a blind date (but only if you feel safe doing so). Just leave your comfort zone.
For example, I attended this hiking club social last week. As I am new to the area and haven’t got many friends, I decided to humour my partner and be his plus-one. I can’t remember the original name of the hiking club, so I have taken to calling them the Brokeback Mountain or the BBKM Society because I think it’s hilarious and a missed opportunity for a gay hiking club to name itself after Annie Proulx’s hell of a fantastic story.
No doubt, I was the world’s most boring plus-one, but I still had a good time. I got to walk the streets of Liverpool, observe people interacting with each other, and listen to their stories and ambitions. And, boy, were they entertaining! I mean, how often do you hear a first-account story about life on board a Narrowboat? Or about managing a funeral parlour?
Yet I fear I don’t take my own advice often enough. While I know that it’s out in the open where the inspiration strikes us most often than not, I also know that I work best in isolation: ay, there’s the rub!
So, if you are anything like me, let’s try and find a balance: let’s split our writing time between sessions in our caverns and sessions in coffee shops, co-working spaces, and libraries. But let’s also set aside some time to expand our horizons and do things we are curious about, like taking on new hobbies, learning new skills, or meeting new people and forming new relationships.
Be adventurous,
Julian Steele
