I am sitting in a room with four other writers. We’re all typing away at our computers or sometimes just staring at them. Four people being together so we can ignore each other and vanish into the worlds inside our heads. Writers are strange people. This writer’s hang out is an experiment and part of my brain is distracted by evaluating it. Is it working? Do I like this room? What if three more people show up? We’ve only got two more chairs. These chairs aren’t very comfortable. I wonder if the Book Group room at Orem Library would be better. It has cushy chairs. I’m supposed to be relaxing and creating fiction, quieting my brain. Instead there is all this noise. Distractions. The others are all typing. I wonder if I’m the only one for whom the presence of other people tugs at my attention. Or perhaps I just need to adapt, try this again until it feels normal. One thing is certain, if I had not scheduled this Writer Hangout I would not write anything today. The press of other commitments would have taken all of the time.
…
And then I open my story, the one I haven’t looked at in months. I begin typing and my awareness of the others in the room fades. I write. For six hundred words I only hear my characters. Then the room comes back. These chairs really are not comfortable. The other thoughts return, but they are no longer hectic and tense, they flow. I am calmer for having been a writer for awhile. Yet time has come to go back to the other things.
Just so you know, I’m very glad I went today. It was really nice to sit and talk with you and Janci and get some perspective from both of you.
As for whether the presence of others drew at your attention, it did the same for me, too. I felt a little self-conscious whenever I spoke up once we’d all actually started writing, so I tried to keep it to a minimum and avoid BEING such a distraction.
That said, the presence of other people writing helped keep me focused on what I was supposed to be doing. I’m not sure why. But I really enjoyed it. Thanks for organizing it. 🙂
Exactly. I’ll definitely be doing this again sometime.
I can write through anything, but that’s because you guys are SO MUCH less distracting than my almost two year old. And I can write through her.
I need to not be scheduling my writing time, though, so I’m not likely to participate in those sorts of events very often. I’m much more likely to come to a chat sort of event, where I get something out of it that I can’t get at home. I might put that sort of event together sometime…but maybe not.
I agree with you on the value of social events with writers. I suspect that just spending social time with writers will cause me to do more writing on all the other days.
I’ve always wanted to organize some sort of writers-with-kids hangout, in which a group of authors convenes at a museum or playground, turns the children loose upon the environment, and then proceeds to happily discuss all things writing-related.
Seems like an ideal way to snatch socialization time without the hassle of babysitters and mommy-guilt. 🙂