I was thinking today about people I know who are also writers. Some of them don't like to share their thoughts on their latest project and others love to talk about it. Why is that?
As a writer I personally think it's important to speak to other writers and authors. This sharing of experience and ideas can surely only make our own writing better. It exposes us to different ideas, different perspectives and can introduce us to views we would never have thought of exploring in our normal writing endeavours.
Let me give you an example. A friend of mine has the most amazing titles for his books. I, on the other hand, struggle to come up with something that passes for a title and spend weeks writing lists of ideas in the hope that one might be usable. We were chatting about this recently and it turns out he takes his inspiration from all sorts of things such as lyrics, films, even snippets of conversations. I've always tried to use the story I've just written to influence my titles and it struck me that in doing so I was really limiting the material I had available to create something interesting and engaging.
Another friend has co-authored a book and told me about the process behind it. Each of the contributors took responsibility for a character and then shared their writing with the others. She told me that it was an incredible learning experience and introduced her to styles of writing she had never considered before. It was a great success, I know, I've read the book.
So if sharing thoughts and experiences works so well, why do some writers seem to hide themselves away whilst they create their work? For one, it helps their focus and allows ideas to flow in an uninterrupted manner. Writing in isolation helps writers to experience the emotions and events they write about. To this style of writer isolation is effectively a workspace. As many writers are introverts, this isolation provides a comfortable space in which to create.
The upshot of all this is that there's no right or wrong way to write. Authors such as Harper Lee, Emily Bronte and J.D Salenger all preferred to write in a reclusive setting. Equally, authors such as James Patterson regularly write collaboratively, sharing ideas and creating great stories.
As for me? Well I'm a bit of both. I like to talk through ideas but then find a spot where I won't be disturbed in order to get my thoughts on paper. We all have our natural preference for how and where we write and whether or not we talk to our fellows about our projects. And that's absolutely fine.