“When I’m in here, it means I’m working. That means don’t come in.”     The Shining/Warner Bros.

One is always warned about the dangers of being a wannabe writer. It’s hard. You will face constant rejection.  It’s hard. You will starve. Being good isn’t good enough. The criticism is brutal.  It’s isolating. Oh, and it’s hard.

Of all of these, the isolating part is by far the least daunting to me.  In a recent Huff Post article, “Balancing the Loneliness of the Writing Life,” Sara Paretsky is quoted as saying the worst part about writing is, “You have to be alone to write…Being alone is very painful. An unsolvable conundrum.”

Besides being eloquently worded, and my admiration for using the word “conundrum,” I have to respectfully disagree.

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