As a
writer, I struggle with social interaction. Not in the sense that I’m awkward
and don’t have the ability to relate to others – no, social interactions just
take too much energy. A social event often has to be special or involve my closest friends
for me to be interested.
Many other
writers are this way as well. This is because we are introverts. I would have never guessed this about myself. I
am confident at public speaking and don’t mind teaching or leading others
regularly. Two years ago, I was teaching a weekly adult class at church, speaking
monthly at a prison, and creating teaching materials for a class I taught
new-hires at work. That doesn’t sound like the typical life of an introvert.
But what I learned was that introverts aren’t necessarily anti-social, they
simply use a lot of energy to be social. They
need lots of alone time to recuperate after social events.
Extroverts,
on the other hand, gain energy by
being social, and being alone and reflective uses a lot of energy. Most people in American society are
extroverts, and there’s a lot of misunderstanding between these two groups.
Even the
most introverted among us has social needs, however. And everyone, introverted
or not, needs to stretch outside their own comfort zones and create relationships
with others. This is especially true with writers and marketers, who rely on
relationships to gain clients and market their work. So what's an introvert to do?