TALKING WITH OTHER WRITERS

The very act of writing is solitary. While there are writing teams and collaborations, for most writers it is about sitting somewhere that you call an ‘office’, and moving those fingers across the keyboard to create something literary. You might have an editor locally who you work with. In my case, five of my six published novels were done with the same editor who I have never met in person who know AS a person.

The inspiration we take from other people, news articles, or something we see in passing fuels the creativity. It is only when a book is finished, edited, and published that we take the final work out into the world and attempt to convince other it is a worthwhile read.

But there are the in-between moments that might be days or weeks or even months. When I have submitted one book to my editor but have completed the first draft of the next one, there is the kind of necessary waiting which makes you, well, write blog posts. One’s mind is still creative but there is no exercise to maintain it.

I have found over the last dozen years that my attendance at the OWFI, though only three days, has a rejuvenating effect, simply because it places me within a large group of writers. It doesn’t matter what their genre is or experience or publishing history. That sense of people sharing the same feelings of accomplishment or frustration levels the playing field. I understand them; they understand me. There is a lot of medicine to be had from the experience.

For nearly two years, I have been co-host of the Tikiman and the Viking Podcast. If an episode is simply my partner, Brian Johnson and myself talking about our creative process or our interviews with writers and other creatives from around the world, there is a double feeling of fulfillment. The first comes in the initial interview where the spontaneity yields interesting human connections. The second is when I relive that time by listening to an episode.

I truly feel as though my own writing and processes have become more enhanced yielding greater fulfillment simply because I can, and do, step out of the ‘office’ and talk with other writers. There needs to be that realization, every now and again, that I’m not the only person leaving this time and space to create something magical and mysterious, before returning to what passes for the real world.