When we think of a writer, most of us will envision a solitary figure at a desk. Perhaps they’re click-clacking away on the keyboard of a laptop, having finally found an agreeable rhythm, a flow, within what has otherwise been a laborious process. Or, perhaps, they’re stuck, staring blankly into a document, pulling at their hair, and obsessing over a sentence, a word, or even a comma.

Sure, these are cliches, but they are cliches for a reason.

Elizabeth Gilbert has been both of these writers. In her 30-plus years working as a journalist and novelist, her writing process has been prolific and productive, but it has also been exacting and exhaustive. The author of multiple bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction — including her wildly successful (and somewhat polarizing) 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” — she seems to have stumbled upon some secret formula that allows her to consistently produce deeply personal stories that are both readable and relatable.

“I write about the things that I find interesting at the time,” says Gilbert from her home in New Jersey, having just returned from several months out of the country. “Then there’s some sort of weird, mystical process by which I can decide whether I should write this as a novel or if it should be written as a memoir or something else. It lets me know what form that writing, that fascination, should take, and then I do as I’m told.”

She hopes to impart some tips on how to harness this “mystical process” on Thursday at the Balboa Theatre, where she’ll appear as one of the featured speakers of the 29th Writer’s Symposium by the Sea. The annual, multi-day event, which is organized by Point Loma Nazarene University, is one of the biggest literary events of the year, and features talks and Q&As from big-name authors and journalists. This year’s other speakers are Nick Hornby, Paulette Jiles and Susan Orlean.

The 29th annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea takes place on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University Feb. 20-23.

(Courtesy of Marcus Emerson)

“There are people who can tell you how to start a blog, find a literary agent, or how to have a marketing plan, all these things, but I’m more of the type that wants to talk about why we do this strange thing in the first place,” Gilbert says. “I want to explore why it’s so important to do this even if it often doesn’t make sense.”

Gilbert goes on to explain that when she speaks to potential writers, especially younger ones, she often points out that the world in which she became a successful writer, from the mediums to the processes, has drastically changed since she first started professionally writing in the 1990s.

“I can’t tell people to do what I did, because the path that I walked no longer exists,” says Gilbert, who recalls her days, fresh out of New York University, writing short stories and making dozens of photocopies to send to publishers and publications. “It was all very analog. Sending them in manila envelopes and getting rejection letters for years and years. It took seven years before I got anything published, but I can’t tell someone to do that now, because none of those things exist anymore.”

She backtracks a bit to remark that the manila envelopes do, in fact, still exist, but her main point is salient in that the varying worlds of publishing, whether it’s journalism or fiction, have changed so fundamentally since the dawn of the internet, that Gilbert says she chooses to focus on what she calls the “universal questions” that come with pursuing a creative profession.

“I wouldn’t presume to advise someone on the process of navigating this particular moment and landscape in time, but there are general and philosophical — as well as the mental, emotional and spiritual — aspects of creativity that remains unchanged,” says Gilbert, who outlined many of these aspects in her 2015 how-to book, “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear”

“The problems that people face when they’re attempting to create are still the same ones as always,” she continues. “The insecurity, the feelings of impostor syndrome, the difficulties with discipline, and all of the existential questions that pop up … those questions don’t change. They’re timeless and I do feel like I can address some of them.”

Gilbert does well to address these in her various appearances and speeches over the years. This includes multiple TED Talks (with titles such as “Your Elusive Creative Genius” and “Success, Failure and the Drive to Keep Creating”), as well as speaking with Oprah Winfrey and others on the multi-city “The Life You Want” tour in 2014. She comes across as conversational and approachable onstage, but says this is due to “rigorous practice” and she still qualifies herself as an “introvert trapped in an extrovert’s body.”

“Yes, I’ve always been comfortable speaking in front of people,” says Gilbert, who often writes out her TED Talks and “memorizes them like soliloquies. ”

“I was always in the school plays as a child and I always wanted to be on stage. I felt at home there. I enjoy it and find it strangely relaxing.”

Another aspect of the process that Gilbert can expertly speak on is that with success comes detraction and criticism.

At the time of its success, “Eat, Pray, Love,” while mostly well received by readers, was criticized by some for having been written from a place of “privilege.” More recently, Gilbert decided to postpone the release of her new historical novel, “The Snow Forest,” after some online critics took issue with the book taking place in Russia and being released at a time when the country was at war with Ukraine.

“It’s an overwhelming culture,” Gilbert says. “The thing about the immediacy of people’s reactions is that you’re going to get an immediate review with anything that you do rather than having to wait until people have read the book. I don’t like not being liked. I’m like all other humans. I prefer praise, and I often don’t have a thick skin.”

Whether the larger public sees the controversy over “The Snow Forest” as a gross example of cancel culture run amok or simply an author not wanting controversy to overshadow her art, Gilbert looks at some of these experiences as ultimately something that has helped her. An experience that has given her a sense of wisdom that she tries to pass on to others who may get overwhelmed by the negativity of day-to-day life.

“I think the only way we can navigate that is by remembering that everyone has a right to speak and somehow that quiets down my wounded ego,” Gilbert says. “I think it’s benevolent and wise to believe that everyone has the right to expression. I have the right to express myself in these public forums, and others have the right to their reactions. That calms me down: If it get to talk, others get to talk. It’s a philosophy that I wrap myself in like a cloak.”

Dean Nelson is the creator of the Writer’s Symposium By the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University.

(Marcus Emerson)

Point Loma Nazarene University’s 29th Writer’s Symposium by the Sea

The annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea began quaintly enough nearly 30 years ago when PLNU professor Dean Nelson invited a few local writers and authors to speak in a small conference room. The hope back then, as Nelson told the U-T last year, was that it would be an “elevating and inspiring” event for anyone with a deep appreciation for the written word.

And while conference rooms have now been replaced with large theaters, the original mission of the symposium remains the same, with some of the brightest literary minds traveling to San Diego to speak to audiences in hopes that they’ll leave elevated and inspired. Here are the featured speakers this week.

Author Paulette Jiles will speak at the 29th Writer’s Symposium by the Sea on Feb. 20, 2024.

(Jeff Goode / Getty Images)

Paulette Jiles: The Texas-based Jiles has traversed between poetry and prose, memoir and nonfiction, since the 1970s. Perhaps best known for her beloved Civil War epic (“Enemy Women”) and her 2016 novel, “News of the World” (a National Book Award finalist and later adapted into a film starring Tom Hanks), she brings a distinct poeticism to her fiction and is a master of both readable exposition and page-turning plots. Her latest, “Chenneville,” was dubbed “another reliably rugged western odyssey” and more than lived up to its subtitle of “A Novel of Murder, Loss and Vengeance.” She will be interviewed by Ben Cater of the PLNU Honor Program . 7 p.m. Tuesday at Crill Performance Hall, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Drive, Point Loma. $10-$50.

Elizabeth Gilbert: The acclaimed author of numerous books, including the 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love.” 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., downtown San Diego; $38-$87.

British writer Nick Hornby is one of the authors who will be speaking at the 29th Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University on Feb. 23.

(Taylor Jewell / Associated Press)

Nick Hornby and Susan Orlean: Dean Nelson will host a conversation with the two bestselling novelists on this night. Hornby is probably best known for books such as “Fever Pitch,” “High Fidelity” and “About a Boy,” all of which have been adapted into successful films, TV series and even a Broadway musical. His latest, “Dickens and Prince,” is a nonfiction examination of the respective geniuses of writer Charles Dickens and musician Prince. Novelist and journalist Susan Orlean penned the bestselling “The Orchid Thief” and “The Library Book,” and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992. She also has a deep love for creatures large and small, with books about dog actor Rin Tin Tin and her latest essay collection, “On Animals.” 7 p.m. Friday at Brown Chapel, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Drive, Point Loma. $10-$66.

For tickets for all events, go to pointloma.edu/2024writers.

Combs is a freelance writer.

Author Susan Orlean will be speaking at the 29th Writer’s Symposium by the Sea at Point Loma Nazarene University on Feb. 23.

(Corey Hendrickson)