An extroverted person in an introverted person's job
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch, extremely profilic indie author/editor:
Most successful writers are introverts. They’re happy spending 99% of their time alone in their own heads. But I’ve met some extroverted writers, and they struggle with the alone time. They write in Starbucks or some local restaurant. They open an office and share it with other like-minded authors.
Mostly, though, they gravitate to writing jobs that require more than one person, like writing for television. There, writers bat ideas around in a writers’ room, sometimes writing while the meeting is going on. Many gaming writers do the same thing, and so do some comic book writers. Journalists spend more time with people than away from people.
Fiction writers, though, even those who collaborate, do so by themselves. And some extroverted writers often try that for a few years before it drives them completely batty. Those writers quit writing fiction, and find ways to write that require a group effort.
Read the rest here!
I go back and forth on whether I'm an introvert or an extrovert—it's probably a 40/60 split: an extrovert with introverted tendencies. Or maybe an introvert who's gotten good at playing extrovert.
[Then again, the fact of writing an autobiographical blog probably makes the split more of a 30/70.]
Anyway, I did want to write for television for awhile, and this was exactly why—it's collaborative, and I suspect that I'm a much better collaborative writer than I am an author. (Also, $$.)
But I am very intrigued by the idea of opening an "office" for like-minded writers to come and work. Like a writers' retreat you attend 9am–5pm, Monday–Friday. You could brainstorm with others, take breaks to chat by the water cooler, or just plug in the earbuds and write. There would be occasional workshops for the willing, and of course office parties, because we all know writers can throw down.
Who's in?