Today I saw a quote on Facebook, posted by (writer/editor) Melanie Saxton which read as follows:
“The only advice I have for writers is to write. If you are destined to become a writer, you can’t help it. If you can help it, you aren’t destined to become a writer. The frustrations and disappointments, not even to mention the unspeakable loneliness, are too unbearable for anyone who doesn’t have a deep sense of being unable to avoid writing.”
~ (Donald Harington, quoted by Robert L. Hall in “The Bard of Stay More: An Interview with Donald Harington.” Southern Scribe, 2004)
This resonates with me because I know how exact a quote it is. However, despite the solitary hours spent bent over the keyboard, I do not find it lonely. I find it rather beautiful; organic. It is something so innate that I don’t even think about it. I cannot escape it nor would I want to. I have truly grown into a writer’s writer. Nothing makes me happier than creating…than piecing together lives and lines.
I hear people talking about what they imagine a writer’s life to be like and can tell immediately if they are born writers or are in it to see their names on a book. Most born writer’s don’t do it with a ton of success in mind. I, in fact, don’t write to please others. (Sorry, I don’t…it’s just how it goes.) Well, unless I am hired to do so…otherwise it is just a part of my life that is. I often don’t contrive topics, they come to me in a whirl in the middle of the night or while writing something else.
So to answer the question, is being a writer lonely? Solitary, yes, lonely, no.