A Bunch of Introverts Trying to be Extroverts

What do you get if you put together a dozen authors in a French chateau? Last week I found out.

My wonderful agent, Robert Caskie, spoilt his writers rotten by inviting us to fly down to Chateau Engalin just outside of Toulouse.

The two groups of authors gathered together completely randomly – those who could attend the first half of the week and those who preferred the second half – and it was such a perfect mix of people. I’m not quite sure why I opted for the second half, perhaps I was hedging my bets that fine weather would be guaranteed the later in the month we arrived, but instead we had mostly rain until the last 24 hours.

Yet it didn’t matter, not one bit. I was only away four nights, yet it feels like a week or even more. How did that happen? Two things, firstly we didn’t waste days sunning ourselves by the pool because, as much as I like doing that, the hours do speed by and, secondly, we hopped into hire cars in groups and explored the area. You’ll be pleased to know my obsession with blue continues (see this post for that particular reference), and I picked up this Sixties’ oil painting in a brocante in Lectoure.

We discovered a quirky bookshop in Sarrant, helped a lady prepare a cathedral for a wedding in Auch, and stopped for coffee and croissants in Toulouse.

All other time was spent at the chateau, and what a place it is, so, so stylish and usually an upmarket wedding venue, it even has its own gorgeous little chapel.

Plus the incredible food was cooked by the author of this book, Whitney Otawka.

You see that when I say we were spoilt I am not exaggerating!

But it was the conversation that was so thrilling, this little writer hermit spent five days in the company of other writer hermits. As one (very well known) author said, we were a bunch of introverts pretending to be extroverts. And perhaps we surprised ourselves, we lingered before and after mealtimes, we wandered off in groups if only as far as the sofa or the poolside to continue our chats. We were fascinated by each other’s projects (my agent represents a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction authors), and the conversations reflected this. But the other thing about authors is that we love to know how other people write, what their routine is, do they sit for hours, do they plan, do they read while they’re writing, how do they get ideas — all the things we ask ourselves here at White Ink – perhaps endlessly searching, wondering if we are missing a secret somehow, a key that will unlock the entire practice.

The other thing is that we can be completely honest about was the fact that our jaws ached from talking when we’re so used to being alone, that we will need to lie down and have silence for the next week to get over the socialising we’ve been doing, and that we have used up our annual quota of how much time we want to spend with others — and it’s only June.

But boy was it worth it. My agent described it as his Summer party, but how many writers get a chance to fly down to the south of France for one long four-day party? I will remember it for the rest of my life and there was also a very touching moment during our penultimate dinner when we were all able to go round the table and tell Robert just how much he had changed our lives and careers — I also remembered I was with him the day I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, we had been for a posh lunch where I had ordered liver and champagne!

And so much for lying in a silent room, I am so inspired by spending five days with such clever, creative people that I’m ready to crack on, ready to face that blank page.

Writing is a lonely business, there is simply no way of getting away from that, but it was comforting to remind myself this week that even writers I so greatly admire feel that, even they think this is the book that won’t come together, this is the one where they’ll fall flat on their faces. Of course they won’t, and neither will I. We will all continue to sit alone, putting one word in front of another until they start to make sense, until they start to look beautiful, until they are ready to send to Robert who guides them out into the world on our behalf.

It turns out that these introverts who prefer solitude to company miss each other now they have returned to the UK, it turns out they make plans to meet up again, that they keep messaging via our What’s App group.

Creativity begets creativity.

Robert has a big birthday this year which is why he organised such a treat for us, now just to convince him to make it an annual thing event…

We better get writing our books!

• White Ink has twice been chosen this year as a Substack Recommended Publication 2024. Each month we meet on zoom to discuss an element of writing. Become a paying member today to join our meet up next week.