Guilty Secrets: The Introvert/Extrovert Writer’s Dilemma
- At October 11, 2011
- By Jeannine Gailey
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So, you may have noticed lately on my blog that I have been out and about a bit more than usual. Like, six thousand times more than usual. This last 30 days I have done more socializing than I probably did in my whole two years down in California. I like people, and I like going out, and I have a new book out that I am promoting, so, you know, part of the territory…You put on your sparkly clothes, and you put on your lipstick, and you go out and meet the world.
But…the guilty secret is…when I take those personality tests, you know the ones, INTJ or ENFP, I come out 50 percent introverted and 50 percent extroverted. So while half of me really enjoys the socializing, half of me wants to be curled up in bed watching Boardwalk Empire with a copy of a bad novel in my lap and a plate of Glenn’s newest gluten-free desserts (this month, blueberry-chocolate-chip vanilla muffins.)
On the other hand, when I don’t get out enough, I get a little scratchy and restless. Like a bad cat, I want out, then I want back in. Then I want out again.
I wonder, is this something every writer experiences? I only write during times when I spend a lot of time alone. But, if I go out every night, that is where all my energy goes – out the door. I want to start writing something new. I also like seeing my friends, I like seeing other writers read their work. I genuinely enjoy all these experiences. One of my favorite things to do in the whole world – more than movies or ice cream – is meet new people and talk about poetry.
I wonder, is this something every writer experiences? I only write during times when I spend a lot of time alone. But, if I go out every night, that is where all my energy goes – out the door. I want to start writing something new. I also like seeing my friends, I like seeing other writers read their work. I genuinely enjoy all these experiences. One of my favorite things to do in the whole world – more than movies or ice cream – is meet new people and talk about poetry.
With a bit of spare time today, I applied for a job, I sent out some new work, I worked on a grant application and a friend’s poems. But tonight, I’m happy to have nothing more pressing to do than figure out dinner, maybe catch up with my stack of unread library books, and maybe even, you know…write?
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
