When taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator/personality test, I usually come up right in the middle of the introvert/extrovert scale. This wouldn’t mean much to anyone, but I have distinctly noticed a back and forth swing of my personality traits; sometimes I am a perfectly satisfied extrovert, and other times I fall onto the introvert side completely.
Yes, now is an introvert period. A lengthy one, at that.
This still doesn’t mean much, other than finding it especially tiring to put myself out there and communicate. I’m feeling altogether quiet and introspective at the moment. It’s challenging to write blog posts about the things I’m thinking on, largely because I have used this blog as a means of communication and discussion, and I’m not in a very communicative state. I do love you all dearly, I just don’t need to say anything much.
Having known this about myself for a long time, now, I’ve frequently wondered over a “public” sort of career. In this day and age where authors are meant to be accessible and celebrities in their own right, how will I deal with that much attention in my introvert periods? Even when I’m experiencing my extrovert side, I’m already terrible at keeping track of things like time, dates, emails and private messages. Deadlines are more like guidelines. Social expectations are there, but don’t necessarily intersect with me personally.
There’s the option of reducing how “interactive” this is; I could close off comments on the blog, and that would be a kind of solution. I know and admire many wonderful people who blog without enabling comments for their own varied reasons. I understand their necessity for that choice, and find the notion just a little appealing, at least while I’m here on the quiet musing side of life. I wouldn’t be cut off from the world. There’s Facebook, Twitter, and of course, emails. Plus, I am a firm believer that friends can pick up where they left off having experienced such wonderful friendships personally.
So while I consider my options, weigh up the choices, I will likely remain an infrequent voice in the vast virtual world. There’s no harm in enjoying an extended “holiday” as an introvert. To bundle myself up in blankets and klackity away at stories. I haven’t disappeared, I’m just in my own head.
~A
The Fane 
I fall solidly at about a nine out of ten on the introvert side of the Meiers-Briggs scale. Always have. But for some reason, blogging doesn’t seem to drain me like other social media (or, God forbid, interacting with real people). Maybe it’s because blogging still feels fairly one-sided, even with comments open?
I go through periods like what you’re experiencing, too. It is a terrible drain on me to be “out there” all the time. The withdrawn times are times for me to recharge my batteries. I don’t think you’re that unusual for a writer. Probably at least 2/3 of the writers I know are introverts, and as such, we just need to withdraw sometimes to let the noise in our heads fade.
Enjoy being quiet. 🙂
How interesting that you perceive blogging as different from being social!
You know, I think writing has to be an introvert magnet to some degree; the extroverts might find a passion for the written word, but their need to be around people would draw them away from the solitary life we live.
Thanks for the support, Amy! 😀
~A