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As you might have guessed, I spend a lot of time alone with a keyboard. I don’t just like silence. I crave it. No matter what your personality type, I believe it’s a valuable skill to be able to be comfortable in life’s quiet moments.

You can blame some of this philosophy on my grandma and my only-child status. Whenever I complained of boredom, she told me if I couldn’t amuse myself, I couldn’t expect to amuse others. (this is obviously one reason I love books). Hmmm, maybe that’s why I strive to make people laugh whenever I’m in a crowd… but I digress…

Don’t get the wrong idea here. I’ll talk your ear off if we ever meet (probably about my kids or my fictional characters) but I’ve stopped fighting the rest of the truth: it takes a lot of quiet time for me to recharge my batteries and maintain my creative energy.

Silence, long, blissful hours of it, is absolutely golden to me. It gives me that mental space where my characters can chatter unhindered as they tell me the story they want to share.

Silence for me, is an essential part of my writing kit and in that silence the essential elements of world building for my novels comes to life.

My imagination soars and carries me off on ridiculous tangents and impossible probabilities. It’s fun, even exhilarating, when something I didn’t know becomes a new wrinkle or plot twist in my paranormal romances, or fascinating invention or advancement in my 2096 adventures.

However, there are times when the ticking of the wall clock just gets too loud (no disrespect to Grandma)

On the rare occasions when the sound of silence feels more like the walls are closing in, I turn up the music, go play with the greyhounds or cats, sit with the finches, or switch up my writing location.

Though I’m a huge proponent of caffeine, I’m not a coffee shop writer. I get too distracted with people watching, so it only fits in to certain brief times in my writing process. Lately, if I have to find a place away from the house, I enjoy the fabulous energy at a friend’s office. It’s the perfect blend of quiet and chatty and I’ve made some great progress on my books lately (and they don’t mind me staring off into space).

Creative energy is a valuable and renewable commodity, no matter what your career or hobbies. It took me several long years to accept what strengthens me and honor it to empower my dreams and fuel my process. But now that I’m on track… look out!

Live the adventure!