Introverts Unite! (separately) – Kelly McCaughrain

I know this is heresy, but I have a gripe about libraries. 

I love libraries (I wrote a whole blog post about how much I love libraries). I love librarians! I was a librarian! Libraries meant a lot to me growing up and one of the reasons for this was that, not only were there books, but the library was silent. 

We all fully subscribe to the idea that libraries are vital in providing books for kids whose houses contain no books, but I think people forget that quiet may also be one of their children’s needs, and some houses contain absolutely none of it. Worse, I think the need for quiet is not only overlooked, it’s positively stigmatized these days.

In fact, it seems like the only way to get any quiet is to get yourself chucked in ‘isolation’ in school, a place I would have embraced wholeheartedly had it existed when I was young. If you are a shy, introverted person then chances are you already spend a large portion of your life (basically any situation involving other people) feeling like a failure and a weirdo. I still feel like this. Every single day. And now you also have to be labelled ‘bad’ to get some peace? 

said no introvert ever

I spent most of my teenage years hiding in my room because I just wanted some quiet. My poor parents (who were very well-meaning) wanted to take me to a shrink. Even I believed there must be something terribly wrong with me. There wasn’t. Except for worrying there was something terribly wrong with me, I was perfectly happy. I just liked to be alone. Some people do.

Lovely comic about Introversion

Even now, when I start work in a new campus, the first thing I do is seek out the quietest, emptiest place I can eat lunch, read or write. Often, there isn’t one.

Libraries these days are not quiet. And when I was working there, every new initiative to ‘get people into libraries’ felt to me like libraries apologising for themselves (in much the same way quiet people are constantly apologising for themselves).  

"Come to the library, we have computers and clubs and flatscreen noticeboards (oh, and there are some books and stuff but you can ignore those) and you don’t even have to be quiet, it’s not the 19^th century here anymore!"

As though the act of reading has changed one iota since the 19^th century. You still need a bit of peace to do it.

And don’t get me wrong, the computers and clubs are great (the flatscreen noticeboards are a big eco-unfriendly waste of space). I just think that it’s the books and the reading that should be the main point of a library. The sacrosanct bit. The bit you design everything else around. Not the bit you apologise for and compensate for by providing fancy coffee machines. The entire world is designed for noisy coffee lovers, why can’t we keep this one little bit of it quiet?

And why would anyone give the books a second glance if even the library treats them like an old-fashioned afterthought and not the main freaking event? It seems like every flashy refurb results in fewer books and less quiet. What kind of message does that send about what we value?

A quiet library would be a lot cheaper than paying for writing retreats too. When I needed a quiet place to write because of noisy neighbours, I had to pay to join the university library because the public libraries were so noisy. University libraries are completely silent. If university study is the goal for our kids, maybe they should be exposed to that kind of environment a little earlier. It might even up their chances of getting there in the first place.

Wow, this got ranty. Soz.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this but if I don’t reply right away, forgive me, I’m off on a family holiday. (18 of us. Pray for me.)

 

Kelly McCaughrain is the author of the YA novel Flying Tips for Flightless Birds. 

She blogs about Writing, Gardening and VW Campervanning at weewideworld.blogspot.co.uk 

@KMcCaughrain 

Introverts R Us - Tamsyn Murray

My name is Tamsyn and I am an introvert.

It took me a long time to realise this, mostly because I am also (for want of a better phrase) a bit of a show-off. I used to put my hand up when I knew the answer at school. I do am-dram, which involves singing and dancing and acting, sometimes in lead roles, in front of hundreds of people. Since I became a writer, the performer in me has been even busier, because what are school visits if not extended performances? I can do interviews for TV, and smile and chat to people I've only just met in social situations, make small talk without any apparent paroxysms of terror. How can I do all of that and not be an extrovert?

It took one of those lists you see popping up on Facebook every now and then to teach me the truth about my nature. Things You Should Know About Introverts*, it said. And I thought that as a writer, I knew plenty of introverted people so maybe it was worth a read.

Point 1 made me pause: We need to recharge alone. I do, I thought. In fact, there's nothing I cherish more than a bit of alone time (although alone time = working time for me because alone time is a rare commodity) and I constantly feel I don't have enough of it. And certainly after an event of some kind, what I yearn for most is to be on my own. Hmmm.

Point 2: We don’t hate being around people, but we probably hate crowds. I thought about this for a while because I wouldn't say I hate crowds but I don't love them either. Unless it's a festival crowd, in which case I love them all. But I do quite often feel overwhelmed by crowds - the urge to go and find a quiet place to sit is strong (or sometimes even to go home) and I get around this by starting random conversations with people. This is a trick I have learned and I almost always enjoy the conversation.

Number 3: We don’t mind silence.This one depends on the silence. I had a boss once who used to come and sit in my office and say nothing. Those were not good silences and I would say anything to fill them (which resulted in more silences because I had said something stupid.) But there's nothing wrong with a companionable silence.

And point 4: Just because we are introverted doesn’t mean we are shy. Very few people would describe me as shy. But by the time I read this one I was starting to realise that there was a good possibility I was an introvert.

Number 5: We can turn on an extroverted personality when necessary, but it is especially draining. This was a clincher for me - I know I do this. When I'm in a crowd and I want to talk to people because I feel uncomfortable (point 2) I switch on. Or for a performance. Actually, being extroverted is a lot like acting, except that I'm just being a much brighter version of myself instead of playing another character. And afterwards I am invariably exhausted.

Point 6 was: We aren’t judging you. And again, this depends on the situation. If you are supporting UKIP then I am judging you pretty hard.


7 made me cringe in shame because I know I do this: We secretly love it when you cancel plans. It doesn't mean I don't like you, it just means I don't have to be switched on.

Number 8: We can get very wrapped up in our own thoughts. AKA Daydreaming. Thinking time. Plotting. So I'm not ignoring you, honestly. I might just have forgotten you are there.

At number 9 we had: We can be pretty bad at connecting. And I wondered about this because I think I am good at connecting. Then I realised it's because I am good at listening - I like hearing other people's stories. And as luck would have it, listening means I have to talk less.

In at number 10 was: We don’t like to hang around. I decided this one depended on the situation. If I'm comfortable somewhere then it can be hard to get rid of me. But in a crowd situation when I've been switched on for a while, an unguarded exit can be too difficult to resist.

The last point was: We have strong opinions. And I decided this wasn't an introvert or an extrovert thing, because almost everyone I know has strong opinions about some things. Writers in particular have strong opinions - why else would we write?

So on balance, I decided that I'm an introvert. And it's nice to know finally that it's OK to want to be alone, to enjoy being on my own. Many of my writer friends are great to be around because they know how that feels, because they are introverts too. But ultimately, I'm not sure it really matters what you are, except that it feels good to know even when I'm alone, I'm not really.


*Things You Should Know About Introverts taken from http://playfullytacky.com/