The Hermit vs. the Social Butterfly

I’m a hermit by nature. Have been since I was little. Being a hermit comes in handy when you’re a writer.

However, I have been anywhere and everywhere OTHER than my cave recently. I’ve been to Avon and direct selling seminars. (For anyone who isn’t aware of my relatively new “day job,” I’m now an Avon Independent Sales Rep. Click here to see my online Avon store.) I’ve been visiting friends and family I hadn’t seen all winter. I’ve been attending Pennwriters meetings and teaching yoga. In other words, I’ve been a social butterfly.

This is not conducive to writing.

However, yesterday, I took a mini road trip. I drove about two and a half hours north and east to meet up with my friend Paula, who drove about two and a half hours west to meet me. We did this all to have lunch at Perkins.

I’m kidding. I wouldn’t drive that far to have lunch at a five-star restaurant. But I would (and did) drive that far to see a good friend. Of course, both of us being writers, we need “an excuse” to come out of our caves, so we exchanged manuscripts while we were at it. I’m first-reading hers and she’s first-reading mine.

But really, we just wanted to get together and catch up. Since we’re both conserving funds these days, we don’t run into each other at conferences much anymore.

It was great fun discussing all the characters, both real and fictional, in our lives. And I can’t wait to carve out some time to read Paula’s manuscript.

On the drive home, inspired by lunch with a fellow writer, my brain started clicking over my measly seed of an idea for my next novel. By the time I returned to my cave, I had a solid one-paragraph synopsis/elevator pitch. It’s a story I’m excited and eager to write.

So now, this social butterfly needs to retreat to her cave and return to her hermit sensibilities for a few days.