100 Things Challenge (#1): A Chrysalis Is a Solitary Place (or How a Writer Is Born)
I've decided to take the 100 Things challenge. (Just what I need! Something else to add to my to-do list! Luckily I have forever to finish it, which those of you waiting for me to finish things can all attest is about how long it usually takes.)
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Heh. My muse is right there yammering in my head when I drive by the Stata Center on the MIT campus or gaze at the Boston skyline while inching along in traffic on the Mass Ave bridge. Mine is right there in the hustle and bustle of humankind.
On solitude and imagination. Yes, there's something to that. I was the youngest kid of three, and my two older siblings were much older than me (by 10 and 15 years), so in some senses, I was functionally an only child. I also grew up on a farm where I experienced more solitude than many of my peers. Hence, I entertained myself by reading voraciously and with a lot of imaginative play, including making up stories in my head that I would then act out with me as the main character - often a coyote or a fox! I was obsessed with wild canids. I had little stories circulating in my neural networks long before I could write. My first fan fiction was based on Thorton Burgess' Old Mother West Wind series. I scrawled and illustrated little stories when I was about 6 or 7.
I could attribute my keen interest in the natural world and my ability to observe on growing up on the farm in relative solitude, but I think this is also how my brain is wired, i.e., to look deeply into things. My brain is also wired to be gregarious, to seek out others' company and their thoughts. So there's a dichotomy at work here: I have characteristics of an extrovert, but I also need to recharge in solitude. I don't mind being alone at all, but I also like being around people.
As an aside, I'd also like to (emphatically) point out that many of us who pursue scientific disciplines like biology, chemistry, physics, and the like (as opposed to "people" oriented psychology) are not retiring introverts. This is something of a stereotype. On the contrary, I count myself among a number of science-oriented folks who are rather outgoing (Club V was chock full of ENTJs), and I was like that as a kid, too.
As for solitude and writing, it depends. Sometimes solitude is an absolute requirement for me when I write. Other times, there's plenty of activity swirling around me. Again, the dichotomy.
We've talked about the sideways brain thing, and I know I have that in spades. ;^) It definitely plays into storytelling.
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