Good Writing can only come from solitude
Good writing and solitude share an eternal bond. But what is good writing? Writing that has the potential to evoke emotion within the reader, ignite a spark in their brain, or inspire them to think in a new direction is what I consider good writing. That’s why it’s important to share a new perspective on an old problem. Most people jump to offer solutions without first igniting an idea in the reader’s mind.
Good writing is not about delivering ready-made solutions. That’s a user manual. It’s about evoking an emotion in the reader.
Writing that challenges the reader’s existing notions and beliefs must first be distilled to a point where every argument is considered. You cannot do that until your mind and environment are free of noise. Solitude demands that you stay with your thoughts and focus on their darker aspects. Writing from a place of solitude means you have lived with your words and ideas before offering them to the world. In those moments, you may hate yourself for never having an original idea, but that is part of the process.
It is important to live with an idea first because if you aren’t comfortable keeping any idea in your head, making peace with it, and simplifying it for clarity, you have no business writing about it. Don’t rush to pen that thought because that would be unjust to the readers—and to yourself. Imagine never owning an idea, never knowing what lies beneath its surface, never understanding the perspective it invokes, and just regurgitating it on the page because you want eyeballs.
A writer who delivers a complex idea with simplicity has spent hours thinking about it.
A good piece of writing delivers the heart of an idea and systematically dismantles every possible counterargument.
But to dismantle every argument, a writer must live with every argument, must observe every facet of those arguments. To do that, he must disconnect from the world. That is solitude.
Every writer must be comfortable living with himself, living with his ideas, and confronting all the contradictions that arise. A writer who is afraid of solitude will never know the depth of his mind. He will never fully grasp the potential of his mind, the depths it can explore, the distances it can traverse, and the diverse arguments it can invoke.
Good writing is not about expressing an opinion but about presenting an idea that dismantles every other opinion. To do that, a writer must live within his mind, with his ideas and arguments. A writer must live in solitude.