ARE WE, AUTHORS, ISLANDS?

The old concept of the author far from the real world, surrounded by wonderful stories, voluntarily isolated to maximize his creativity. Very romantic. Yes, sure. In the nineteen century.

Authors had evolved and now one of them is in front of his computer, tipping while receiving a notification in the task bar: a new email from Amazon KDP on the top of the inbox.  “Good! The payment of the royalties from last month arrived” In the browser, the twitter extension announces that a follower replied to one of his tweets. His fingers stop. "I must see it". Then, he realizes his essay about the civil war is not finished yet. "Focus, focus".

And I am talking only about the virtual distractions. It's hard to concentrate and feel inspired at home, with kids running around and a husband / wife demanding attention.

So, the concept of being an island is pretty attractive.  I am sure that authors from nineteen century could hardly deal with one single day of a XXI century author's routine.

The social media can be overwhelming but is also necessary. Actually, I believe that modern authors have additional skills, and in a few years we'll develop an extra hand as a consequence of this evolution process.

I am not talking literally, of course, but the pressure will be easy to manage as much as we adapt to this technological world.