WRITING & ISOLATION
One thing that has always been hard for me is how isolating the writer life can be. As most of you know I'm disabled, and mostly stuck at home these days. I live with my best friend, who's also my carer, and her child, and while we all have our own space in the house, we do still talk between the rooms and all of that. Mx. D is a buddying writer, and they have a lot of fun talking out ideas and the like, but it's still isolating. I have a friend, who's also my editor, and we talk daily and chat about this and that, but at the same time, it's still isolating being a writer.
So what can you do about it? There are, even with the plague times still upon us, places you can go to try and help with that isolation, and help with the want to speak to like-minded people, who know the feeling of being trapped a little in the world of your characters and not really being able to talk to other people who get it within your own home. For me, a lot of these are inaccessible either because of the way I work, or the places they're held being just literally inaccessible. That's not to say that you shouldn't try to get out there and have a go at relieving some of that isolation, just that not everything will work for you, and that's completely okay.
#1 WRITING GROUPS ONLINE
I've specified online because for someone like me, who's trapped inside a lot of the time, the online space can be so welcoming and accessible. You can find people who think like you, who write stories like you, who want to connect and all the rest on places like Facebook and the like. These are great spaces for trying to branch out without having to leave the comfort of your own home.
#2 WRITING GROUPS IN PERSON
I would be remiss to mention one without the other. If you're someone who can travel, and is comfortable doing so, then yeah these can be a goldmine. It allows you to get out and be face to face with other writers, and they're usually local to you, and meet regularly.
#3 LIVESTREAMS
These have been so popular in the Authortube space for a while now. It's not something I've found easy to use, because I personally don't have a good enough computer to run sprints, and my sleep schedule is so off-kilter with everyone else's that I'm awake and able to write at the wrong times. I'm also not someone who writes well to short sprints. I much prefer going into a chapter and writing for a big chunk of time, so it's really not something that I've found useful, but if it works for you, then great!
#4 DISCORD GROUPS
I've made this a separate point than writing groups online because I usually find that discord is a whole different beast. On these groups you can easily do sprints, talk to people, share your work, and all of that. It's a great way to meet up with people and still get to do your writing and such in your own way. I've found a fair few that work well for me, and they sometimes have a sprinting bot that allows you to just jump into a sprint whenever you feel like it.
So there we go, those are my four things that help with the isolation around writing. It's not something that gets talked about a lot, we'll discuss things like burnout but less about the feeling of just being very alone in your writing space. I find that every little thing helps, and I hope some, or all, of these were useful to you!
Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!
Follow Joey here on her blog, or on Facebook or Tumblr to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books
No comments:
Post a Comment