The writers also have the fomo (and the folo). How to find balance?

This article on Fomo and Folo is published in the number 20 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 13 May 2025

Years ago I found myself asking a class of boys and girls who was in their imagination a person who writes. In most cases, children wrote about people sitting at their desk, in a house immersed in the woods or on a hill. From the desk the writers could see the trees green, hear animals hiding in the trunks and experimenting the strength of the plays of light at the different hours of the day. In short, they were for them some dispersed creatures, very far from the city, from the hustle and bustle, distant from others, enough to themselves And always dedicated to one’s only and fundamental desire: to write.

As often happens, It is possible that children bring a truth with themwhich is that of dreams, of when I too at their age, if I imagined myself writer, I thought of remote places where to hide, no other employment that my storiesthe walls full of bookstores, the bookcases full of volumes, the volumes full of bookmarks.

Unfortunately, the profession of the writer has also changed over the decades, and if there are those who still live outside the big cities and prefer mountain places, lake, rock and discharged to write and live, Many today’s writers and writers are inhabitants of the city. Commuters on the Frecciarossa trains, often write while they are traveling or in their two -room apartments from whose windows they see tram, machines or crazy of tourists. But they are not only the places that differ from the imaginary child, it is precisely the posture that does not often correspond to reality.

Today, in fact, on the writer, the same concerns of anyone else, due to the network, social media, to the image of self that this could produceto the need to always be present, always in the debate, to have to make protagonists of meticulous and newspaper stories to be put online to keep the profiles active and feed the algorithm. According to social media it is easy to realize, for example, when you are not invited to some important festivals or fairs. In the days of the aforementioned colleagues do nothing but post images from the events in which they participate, the people who meet, the files of readers and readers ready to listen to them. On the other hand you are you – the unpaved – that you find yourself feeling a fault, a sense of silly and cowardly frustration: the Fomo (Fear of Missing Out) culturalthat fear of those who are part of the book sector of not always and everywhere present and to feel so aside and miserable.

The cultural fomo also leads to saying about Yes to all possible and imaginable meetings around the booksin all parts of Italy that can be reached, because you are sure that you just get lost a library both like letting your novel, your creature fall on vacuum. Between one suitcase and another, between presentation and another, there is just time to sleep, eat and greet everyone before resuming the journey to a new destination. As soon as you stop, as soon as you flow any social, you have the feeling on you again the gift of ubiquity would be necessary To be present elsewhere at the same time, because one place only at a time seems to no longer be enough.

The fomo does not touch only those who write, but also The impression that the writer has of their books. They are the first, which must always be present in the lists of the best sellers of Amazon, dei Most commented on goodmedson the pages of Bookinfluencerin the columns of the newspaper on newsstands, in the advertisements of a Sunday insert. To tell the truth, this performance anxiety compared to the novels has always done a little part of the career of writer or writer who is keen to be read and reviewed, appreciated. But today the parameters are new, the possibility of collecting information on oneself and their books is infinite. Thus, in search of constant confirmations such as A writer friend of mine who for years regularly controls the stars who are conferred on him on anobes (But who still uses it?) And has also discovered that there is a user, always the same, that as soon as he comes out his book he regularly gives him an star by lowering the average.

At the beginning I grinned in front of these paranoia, making the superior between me and me, but then, I understood that I also fell in these virtual manias that forced me to try the logging outdetach yourself from the network to restore a system of priority and common sense. A difficult challenge for the writer, especially for the writer and has under fifty years, why By now many publishing houses count on the social profiles of authors and authorson their communication skills and their being always available not for calls or messages but for direct Instagram, fruitful interactions and trend of the day.

Many writers and writers I respect suffer from one Folo (Fear of Logging Out) terrifying, which leads them to having to comment with their posts every important topic that circulates in the world, as if not doing it could represent the loss of their ability to attract public, to say, to exist and therefore to write.

Sometimes, these practices of Online and offline attendance They throw us into the anguish to continue doing everything except writing, which should be our only activity. Activities that for many can be carried out anywhere (just have a PC or a notebook and a pen in the old way), but which is the risk of getting used to the rhythms of the flow of our society. A poisonous, overwhelming slide like a magma, which carries behind the terror of being forgottento become irrelevant. A terror well known to the writer.

Perhaps sometimes, to restore our balance, it would be enough to take a long breath and rethink the ideas of children who seem to a modest and innocent first glance, but which also carry behind, always, a little wisdom and revolution.

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