As a psychologist, I was always acquainted with the Big 5 personality traits, the most well-known in public knowledge being extroversion and introversion.

I always thought I was more of an ambivalent, a mix between extroverted and introverted, maybe tipping a little more towards the introverted side, especially when I’m working on personal projects.

I enjoy socializing, spending time with friends, meeting new people, going to social events, but I also enjoy my solo time and recharge by myself after those social moments with other people.

One of the main ways I recharge from socializing and being out and about is writing: Writing personal essays, articles, journaling, working on my novel drafts, creating chapter outlines, character descriptions, or even creating written lists of goals and plans.

Writing enables me to switch off from the outside world, forget all worries, and express myself without limits. It lets me distill my experiences in the outside world through the reflections of my inner world.

It gives me a sense of purpose, meaning, something to work on, something to hone in and perfect. It allows me to recharge and rebalance myself from life’s chaos. It buoys me to a safer shore. And I know it’s able to do all this as I’m creating space for it in my life, time with myself, and my writing.

The solitude in writing

Writing is a solo act. Of course, writing can be turned into a group activity. You can participate in writing workshops or courses with fellow writers, join Slack groups, meet up with other writers regularly at cafés or workplaces to sit together and discuss each other’s writing or writing in general, or even sit together to work together.

But at the end of the day, the act of writing is an individual one. It’s not a band performance or group activity. You can create a social activity out of writing, but when the actual writing for your novel or essay, or any written piece needs to get done, you ideally need to have only yourself and your mind between your…