Loneliness of a writer

Today I was thinking about being a writer and then I started to think about what the hardest part of my job was. 

Is it writing the book? No
Is it the blurbs? That's hard, but no.
Marketing? Not really
Then what? The loneliness.

Being a full-time author means I spend a lot of time alone. Both kids are in school and the husband goes to work. Which means by 8:15 each morning, the house is all mine until 4. That is a lot of time. A lot of time that nothing is going on. If I'm having a bit of un-creativeness as I am now, that means I spend my day staring at walls, or the TV. If I'm lucky, I might get to talk to someone.

Unless I am on facebook or on chat with other authors, I get no interaction 5 days a week. Some days I think about hanging my towel up and doing something else. Something where I help people, talk to people, just interact. But then the thought hits of having to get dressed 5 days a week, leave my house all those days. While its not a bad thing, I'm accustomed to my loneliness now.

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Since I've been a full-time writer over a year now, I then stopped to think about how the heck I deal with the loneliness without going into a deep and dark depression. Believe me, it can happen.

If I can, I try to have one phone call a day to someone. If that doesn't happen, such as today, I find I will talk my kids heads off when they get home or my hubby's.

I schedule my writing time and then reward myself with a TV show or something. While that doesn't make me interact, sometimes watching a funny show or a reality show will make me laugh and almost make me feel like a made a trip to wal-mart. 

And shopping, yes. Schedule that in. Which is also good if you're a writer. Once you step away from your computer and you're driving down the road with no pen or paper, that idea will hit you.

And if you really get in desperate need to talk to someone, I have animals and I talk to them...a lot. Especially the dog, she likes it when I talk to her. 

And when all else fails, turn to social media. There will always be an author on their avoiding their edits or work-in-progress.

**photo from Free Digital Photos.**