One of the challenges that a writer experiences is isolation.
By definition and practice writing is a singular and personal endeavor. No writing can occur when the mind is engaged in social interactions.
Yes, we can get our ideas and inspirations from others.
But. To write, we need to write alone.
The isolation of our practice can seep into our very lives. We can retreat from our real world into the fictional one we create and live during our hours of immersive writing.
That makes it important for us to maintain “balance” with the real world.
We need to get out and about from time to time. Out and about to experience reality, to gather our senses and reflexes. To rebuild our stores of sensory references.
Fiction exposes the people factors of our stories.
Non-fiction writes to an aucience of actual people.
Thus, we have people to see.
Sure, if we are working with editors and agents, business requires it.
But we have friends and families we feed from for meaning.
We have friends from our history, near or far, that hold memories we can access for inspiration.
Then there are those strangers who are just friends we haven’t met yet. The whole world of their experience awaits our brushing against it to glean new insights into the human condition.
Finally, we have things to do. Life moves on whether we are in the heat of craetive output or in the droughts of inspiration.
Life goes on.
Chores, to-dos, pay the bills, cook the meals, make the home run efficiently… Things to do for a real life.
But queries to send, research to do, drafts to write, editing to massage. Things to do.
Write, write, write, and then write some more.
But take a now and then break to go places, see people, and do things.
