The loneliness of the long-distance writer

It's a cliche to say that writing is a solitary and often lonely occupation. It's not a cliche to point out that success is as lonely as invisibility. In the 80s, when I was visible everywhere, at least in the Northwest, and now and again beyond, I felt no more connected than later when I became more invisible. Isolation is part of the writing life.

The trouble with fame, even relative fame, is that it's tempting to believe that the praise written about you is true. It's not that it might not be true. It's that fame, press, visibility, the rest, is irrelevant, a distraction from what the writer's task really is. J. D. Salinger said it best: "An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."

You can't state it more clearly than that. All the rest is a social distraction from the task at hand. There is nothing, it seems to me, in the social dance of the arts that actually helps the artist at this task. This is why the suggestion, by Glass and others, that all art should be presented anonymously makes perfect sense. It puts the focus on the work, not on the person.

Of course, many artists enjoy playing the social role of artist. I don't happen to. For me, the bang is the process of creation itself ... and the whimper is everything that happens after the work is done. The former activity is solitary, the latter social. Unlike Dorothy Parker, I like writing but I don't like having written.y concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."