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Writing Is a Solitary Journey I Never Thought I Would Embark On
This isn’t what sixteen-year-old me planned at all.
When I first started scribbling half-stories and unfinished scenes in my notebooks, I was in my sophomore year of high school. After a brush with the beginning of the Young Adult novel boom (yes, that book whose title rhymes with nightlight), I somehow thought my A’s in English and aptitude for essay assignments would easily translate to a journey in fiction writing. Being handy with words was one step in the right direction, no?
Over fifteen years later, a lot has changed. As someone who grew up without access to the internet in my home, I didn’t think I’d someday be taking to an online site daily just to put my words out into the world. And the notion that whole novels could be uploaded to a web site at the touch of a few keys? Wild. (And that’s not even considering the wonders of today’s brand of self-publishing.)
But on the other hand — this kind of thing is really fragile. In a time when we’re considering the implications of a potential nuclear war, it’s easy to imagine that soon the internet may become obsolete. Without the power granted by grids and the interconnected communication web, the very notion of “writing” and the extension of publishing in the modern world could become obsolete really…
