[This is a bit of a wandering ramble. An avalanche of Life hit this past week, and I’m adjusting to what that means, both short and long term. My usual ramble will return next week {touches wood}]
I have a home office that I use for writing and Day Job work. The rest of the house has been very quiet for much of the summer as Mom and Dad Red traveled, then were out dealing with a Situation.* That left me, the cat, and quiet.
Then came out-of-town family, who are active and busy and well intentioned, work in the house that was not quiet, work outside the house that was not quiet, and when the silence settled again, all I could to was breathe happily and savor the peace. It is very, very hard to be productive with the sound of power-tools in the vent system. I managed it, and it is easier than with busy family in the house, but I’ve turned into a semi-hermit, sort of.
Better, I need set places and times for disorder and business, and times and places for quiet. I know Day Job will be busy, because, well, it’s Day Job. Other times and places are loud and busy (tire repair place, grocery store on Saturday). I like a quiet house, or to have the sound somewhat away, so I can tune it out. Or, conversely, I need to be busy, doing productive and needful things so others can have a bit of quiet.
The rush and busyness will pass, a new routine will emerge, and I will return to a slightly different but slowly familiar pattern of quiet interspersed with mild chaos. I’ve managed to get words on page despite everything, which is partly because words are a coping mechanism and partly because I need to get this DONE, so I can get to other things and Get Paid.
Lots of writers work around, during, and through mild chaos and interruptions. Others have to have absolute peace and quiet and calm [and do not have small children or pets!] Even if you just have a moment or two to jot down an idea or a few lines of description, you are writing. And if you can’t do that? That’s fine. Give yourself space and grace.
*I handled the house, bills, yard, and so on, letting them focus on Big Thing.
Mad Genius Club 
3 responses to “Homebody or Hermit: The Surrounded Writer”
Quiet is golden but No People-ing is the major requirement. The characters in my head have a hard time getting heard through the tremendous effort it takes to run “actNormal.exe”.
Having children taught me to get things done in small amounts and to hold an idea in the back of my mind while being interrupted. I had to relearn this skill when my husband retired. To borrow a Dorothy Grant Character, I’m married to a Twitch.
(Big Begging eyes. Love that World, more, please?)
The worst thing is the wretched phone. Mostly leave it turned off.
And however much I need to People (if for no other reason than to observe and use them in stories . . . nah, really it’s good for me) I need a lot of quiet unbothered time to write.
I don’t mind people sounds, as long as they don’t expect me to respond. Even lawn mowing and kitchen work doesn’t pull me away from my work.
What drives me NUTS is the TV being on – even if no one is in the room. Which is the standard Dennis was raised in.
Look, I get it. In the bad old days, TVs had to ‘warm up’ before you could get reception. Doing that multiple times a day could blow one of the vacuum tubes – a relatively expensive component.
So, the noise was omnipresent, and the family learned to ignore it.
I grew up in a relatively quiet house. People made some noise, but not that much.
So, now, when my husband is retired, and has nonstop TV on – game shows, “morning news”, talk shows – especially The View, which is not only filled with shrill, over privileged, and ALL Leftist (even the so-called Conservative position is In Name Only). On Saturday, he watches reruns of his youth. On Sunday and in the evenings, he watches sports, Nature documentaries (Have you ever watched snails mate? He has), and reruns – Big Band Theory (good the first time, boring after 6 more times).
That’s why I sometimes retreat to my office. This house is the first one I’ve had in over 50 years that I could close a door on. The other office areas were carved out of other rooms, and made me prone to interruptions.