WRITER'S BLOCK: SOLITUDE

I was reading Writing Alone and With Others by Pat Schneider and found myself absorbed by her elaboration of ways in which it is possible to get solitude and privacy which she views as essential if one is to write.  And, I heartily agree.

It is not so much that the writer have a physical space of their own.  It is far more important to believe that you have  the right to space.  That your needs are as important as others.

Pat Schneider tells the story of a mother who lived in her car with her three children.  "She was teaching them the value of their own opinion, their own right to honest expression.  In giving them journals and the certainty that she would not read them, she was giving them essential privacy and encouragement to write."

In solitude, no matter how you carve out the physical space to get it, you, the writer, have the opportunity to see what you think and value your words.