{"id":37983,"date":"2020-05-28T06:30:56","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=37983"},"modified":"2020-05-21T20:15:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T08:15:15","slug":"inside-the-writing-life-naturally-self-isolating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2020\/05\/28\/inside-the-writing-life-naturally-self-isolating\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Writing Life: “Naturally Self-Isolating” :-)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shutters closed.<\/p><\/div>\n

Over recent months, my posts have coalesced around several themes, including\u00a0 “Writing In a Time of Corona Virus<\/a>“, especially when NZ was in its Level 4 Lockdown. (We’re currently in Level 2, with all digits somewhat tightly pretzelled that we’ve “done enough” to stay here or go to Level 1 — now wouldn’t that be grand?)<\/p>\n

The second theme is writing-centric (my own writing, that is) and has included reflections on writing the long form<\/a> (aka novels and series) and a commitment to write a little more from inside the writing life<\/a>. And this is the third Inside post: huzza! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Naturally “self-isolating”…<\/p><\/div>\n

In both the “Writing In a Time of …”<\/em> posts and my Reflections on Writing the Long Form<\/em>, I made reference to the writing life being naturally self-isolating—which is partly humour and partly true.<\/p>\n

While I can’t speak for other writers and their process, I find it helps to have periods of solitude and uninterrupted writing time. So I tend to seek that out whenever possible, to try and help the muse along.<\/p>\n

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Mmmm, delicious…<\/p><\/div>\n

At all time in fact, but particularly when I do get those quiet times, the authorial coffee pot is an essential adjunct to the writing life, for brew and reflect moments, hands then wrapped about the cup as I watch the steam—and when fortune smiles!—the inspiration rise.<\/p>\n

The dichotomy in all of this, is that although solitude helps to download the creative message from the Muses<\/a>, it’s people and their doings that are the breath of life for fiction.<\/p>\n

And a great deal of what makes us all tick as people, is being with other people and in community. So I suspect that if the self-isolation goes on for too long, then the writing—like the author—may end becoming a little disconnected from reality. An apt quote in that respect is the wonderful passage from John Donne:<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cNo man* is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…any man\u2019s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

from Meditation XVII<\/strong> by John Donne, 1572-1631<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the creative tension between solitude and engagement is not that<\/em> unlike living in a time of corona virus, in which we go into lockdown and self isolate in order to get some runs on the board against the virus—but the whole point<\/em> of doing so is in order to go out into the world again and re-engage both safely and fully.<\/p>\n

So yep, sometimes going out and engaging when it doesn’t feel like I have quite enough runs on the writing board can feel a bit like breaking lockdown: O-o. Then again, so long as there isn’t a corona virus or its equivalent lurking out there, waiting to get me—and perhaps more importantly, to get to others through me—then sometimes that breakout is just good for the soul.<\/p>\n

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USA<\/p><\/div>\n

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UK\/AU\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

Actually, typing that Covid-19 analogy makes me realise that the graphic depictions of the virus do put me in mind of my mental image of the Swarm lurkers (chiefly seen in The Gathering Of the Lost<\/em><\/a>), albeit without the jellyfish-esque tentacles beneath. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

A book that addresses the dichotomy between isolation and involvement is Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane<\/strong><\/em>. Any reader that’s a regular here will probably have picked up that I’m a fan of this book, but one of the issues that the heroine, Jenny Waynest, struggles with is her need for solitude to strengthen and enhance her magic, and her human need to connect with others and be part of a wider community.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jenny thinks she has been weak in giving into her humanity and choosing to have a husband and children, as well as being a mage, and that she has weakened her magic because of it. In fact, the way this conflict works out is an important aspect of the book (and by no means obvious, by the way.)<\/p>\n

I’ve often wondered whether the author, Barbara Hambly’s approach to Jenny’s character could have been influenced by the tension between solitude and engagement in the writing life. Although if Ms. Hambly’s characters are anything like mine, they quickly develop minds and character traits of their own, independent of the author’s original conception. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

* I would argue that no woman<\/em> is an island either, or better yet, no person<\/em> of \r\nany persuasion, but given the era in which John Donne was writing I suspect he\r\nused \"man\" and \"mankind\" in the oldfashioned sense of encompassing all people.\r\n<\/span><\/pre>\n
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Over recent months, my posts have coalesced around several themes, including\u00a0 “Writing In a Time of Corona Virus“, especially when NZ was in its Level 4 Lockdown. (We’re currently in Level 2, with all digits somewhat tightly pretzelled that we’ve “done enough” to stay here or go to Level 1 — now wouldn’t that be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,23,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-what-im-doing","category-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37983"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38000,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37983\/revisions\/38000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}