The Lonely Life of Being A Writer

(A Realistic Amusing Guide to Solitary Greatness)

Karen Stead member of Keighley’s Lonely Writers (which meets weekly, Saturdays 10am-1pm in the Library).

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a writer, imagine voluntarily entering a long-term relationship with your own thoughts … except your thoughts are dramatic, unpredictable, and tend to show up at 2 a.m. asking if you’ve considered rewriting chapter three again.

Welcome to the gloriously lonely life of being a writer. Pull up a chair, there’s plenty of room. No one else is here.

☕ Solitude Level 1: The “I’ll Just Write for an Hour” Lie

Every writer knows this classic trap:

You sit down with a warm beverage, ready to be productive. You open your laptop. You stretch your fingers. You stare at the blinking cursor.

Then suddenly you’ve accidentally researched medieval pig-keeping for two hours, your drink is cold, and you’ve written exactly one sentence, which you no longer like.

And you did all this alone. Because no one else in your life wants to hear you say the words, “Wait, do you think this fictional dragon has emotional issues?”

📚 Solitude Level 2: Conversations With Imaginary People

Writers spend a lot of time talking to themselves, doesn’t everyone? But writers have found a loophole:

We call them characters.

If anyone overhears us saying things like: “Okay, but why would she stab him with a spoon?” or “No, Marcus, you cannot adopt the raccoon. Stay focused,” we simply smile and clarify, “It’s for my book,” as though that makes us sound more sane.

Spoiler: it really doesn’t. Those looks you get from people who cross the road when they hear you talking to yourself are genuine.

✍️ Solitude Level 3: The Revision Spiral

Writing the first draft is lonely. Revising the first draft is lonely and painful. It’s similar to finding an old photo of yourself and saying, “Why did I think this was a good idea?”

Except the photo is 300 pages long.

You edit alone because no one else wants to watch you:

· mutter angrily at your screen,

· change one word,

· change it back,

· decide the entire plot no longer makes sense,

· eat an unhealthy snack,

· and declare you’re quitting writing forever (again).

😌 Solitude Level 4: The Strange Joy of It All

Here’s the secret: writers complain about the loneliness, but deep down… we love it.

We love the quiet. We love the weirdness. We love the magic of taking a blank page and turning it into something alive.

Being a writer means you’re never truly alone, you’re just surrounded by people who technically don’t exist, but feel real enough to annoy you anyway.

🌟 The Final Truth

The lonely life of being a writer is actually a life full of worlds, ideas, jokes, stories, heartbreaks, and triumphs. Sure, we might sometimes look like silent gremlins typing in dark rooms, but in our minds?

We’re busy building a whole new universe.

And honestly? That’s a pretty great way to be alone.

Karen Stead, M.F.A

Author, Writer, lonely with my thoughts to keep me company.

The Unexpected Monet is my first novel available on Amazon and I’m still working on my second novel, Small Island Ancestors. It’s keeping me awake at 3am.

IF YOU would like to join The Lonely Writers at Keighley Library, just turn up! We usually meet upstairs, every Saturday at 10am where we write for an hour and fifteen minutes, take a break, then write some more. The group isn’t led, you can enter and leave as you please. Often there’s biscuits, there’s always tea and coffee and sometimes…just sometimes…there’s cake!