Drowning in words

I'm surrounded by silence but at the same time I am drowning in words and it hardly ever leaves me, that sense of disconnection.

Anthony Horowitz, A Line to Kill

Anthony Horowitz

One of the attractions of the Daniel Hawthorne series of mysteries written by Anthony Horowitz is that he makes himself one of the main characters. In the novels, as in real life, he is a writer of mysteries. He often mentions some of his other books in these books. He writes about his agent, his publisher, his readers, etc., and much of what he says about the writing life rings true. The line above from the second page of A Line to Kill is one such comment.

A writer, he says, is "surrounded by silence" and "drowning in words" at the same time. Writing tends to be a solitary occupation, best done alone in a quiet place, yet words rush constantly through the writer's mind, not just while writing but at other times, as well.

Novelists imagine conversations they cannot hear. They describe things they cannot see, at least not at the time they are writing. They are drowning in words, even those writers who in real life are introverts with little to say.