I see it mentioned frequently in books, blogs and other media that writers are mainly introverts. Be that as it may, there are some of us who aren’t. We’re extroverts. Now, normally, as an extrovert, I would talk up being an extrovert and try to tell all the introverts to be like us. It’s fun! we cry as introverts run with their hands blocking their ears into their caves, terrified of the party streamers and music we are playing on full volume.

Normally, being an extrovert is The. Best. Thing. In. The. World.

But!

Being an extroverted writer has it’s down side.

(Extroverts reading this: Bear with me. It’s shocking, I know, to contemplate there being anything remotely negative about being an extrovert.

Introverts reading this: I know you are all excited at the prospect that being an extrovert isn’t really ‘all that’ but I also know that deep down, you still wish you were like us.)

1. Being the party animals that we are, it is hard to find time to write, given that our social calendars are continuously overflowing.

2. When we are out, we talk to so many people and collect sooooo much fodder for stories that we start far too many projects to feasibly work on.

3. People call us. All the time. And I mean quite literally. I’m not exaggerating – my phone has rung four times just writing this post.

4. Because of our innate interest in everything around us and people’s desire for us to be involved in any and every conversation/happening in the house, we are never given a moments peace to put our fingers to the keyboard.

5. Social media is our cryptonite. I seriously start having heart palpitations if I am away from my computer for more than 22 minutes, clearly a major hazard to my health.

6. We have so many interesting, funny, moving things to either read to you from a blog or re-tell (adding our own unique flavour to it of course!) that we know you are just dying to hear about. Well, we don’t want to let you down, so instead of working on our MS, we are duty bound to sit down with a cuppa and entertain you, sometimes for hours on end.

7. There are so many pretty, shiny things on the net to look at, so many pictures of cats and babies to share on our fb wall, that research is virtually rendered impossible.

8. Unlike you introverts, spending hours on end, in our pyjamas, surrounded by dirty coffee cups, with stale breath and the slight smell of sweat in the air, is NOT our favourite way to spend a weekend.

9. The expectations on us are enormous. Extroverts are favoured by society. Imagine the fallout from turning into an introvert due to locking oneself away to write a book. We simply can’t take that risk.

10. We are so busy figuring out what we will wear to our book launch, where it will be held, who we will invite, which TV stations will we agree to be featured on, that sometimes, just sometimes, we forget to actually write a book.

So you can see quite clearly, we are very hard-done-by, us extrovert writers. But don’t worry, introverts, we will soldier on. That’s just how amazing we are.