A Sense of Community

I hang out with theatre people and musicians.  They’re a sociable lot.  They like to sit aorund telling stories, improvising scenes, and air-drumming entire scores.

Of course, there are solitary times when they rehearse.  As an actor, I’ve spent hours on my own learning lines but always with the awareness that at some point I’ll get together with the director and other actors to devise the scene.

Writing is much more solitary, at least in the initial stages.  Not until you have a viable draft do you share it with anyone else.  At that point, readers and other writers become your community.  There’s the sociable discussion and critique.  But overall, a fair amount of your writing time is spent working on your own.

I’m not saying this is necessarily bad but rather that I sometimes long for the presence of others while I”m working on that first draft.  It’s no wonder I go to coffee shops to work.  Even if I’m working on my own, I’m surrounded by people engaged in their own conversations, full of the dynamic qualities of day-to-day life.

Right now I’m at home writing this blog.  I’m alone.  Even the dog is not here; she’s outside arguing with a squirrel.  The house makes its noises — the furnace kicks on, the joints creak.  Outside, an airplane passes overhead.  

I miss the sense of community.  Not surprisingly, I’m finding it hard to write.