It puzzles me that writers bother to write their autobiographies, and even biographies of other writers. Writers should know better than anyone, that writing is a dull, antisocial activity. The working life of most writers can be summarised something like this:
"He (or she) sat at their desk, and wrote. He/she ignored his/her friends for long periods of time. His/her partners, pets and everyone else didn't understand, and resented the rejection. But he/she wrote anyway."
This is because, to be a writer, you have to write. If you don't write, you don't get to be a writer. It is a cruel truth that, no matter how hard you try, you might not get to be a published writer, but it is an undeniable, hideous fact that if you don't sit down and write, you won't be any sort of writer, good or bad, published or unpublished.
And writing isn't a team sport, or something you can do in a club or society, or job share.
Yes, you can meet up with other writers and share ideas and read each other bits of your works in progress and give each other support and encouragement. That is all good and worthwhile and important. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this.
But, to write, ultimately, you have to sit down, by yourself, hopefully with some inspiration - or coffee, which is a good substitute - and write. And at that point, you're on your own.
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