Inside the Writing Community
Writers are notorious for being loners. We spend hours in solitude, bent over our keyboards, laboring over prose and poetry. And when we’re not absorbed by our own writing, we’ve got our noses wedged deeply into someone else’s, because if there’s one thing we love as much as writing, it’s reading.
When we finally pry ourselves away from pages of text, we’re usually greeted by our non-writing or non-reading friends and family members. They don’t care about alliteration, character development, or dangling prepositions. They want to know where you’re going for dinner.
Writers have access to books and websites full of writing tips that provide useful ideas, inspiration, and guidelines to help us be better at our craft. What’s often missing from those writing tips is this: embrace the writing community.
The Heart of a Community
At the heart of every community lies a common, shared experience, and it’s no different for writers. Only other writers can understand our unique struggles. Whether we’re tangled up in a messy plot that’s going nowhere, trying to form a poem into a publishable work of art, or working through a stressful revision on an article or essay, the challenges we encounter as writers are particular to our craft.
When we surround ourselves with other writers, then it becomes easy to find a friendly comrade – someone who can sympathize or lend a bit of writerly advice. Someone once told me that getting married means your life has twice the joy and half the sorrow, and the same is true of being involved in the writing community.
Other writers will relate to small accomplishments and celebrate them with you. When I finished the first draft of my novel, the non-writers in my life wanted to know if I’d already sent it out to get published. My writer friends said, “Good for you! When are you going to start revising?” This stark difference punctuated why the writing community is so important to me as a writer, and made my heart sing with appreciation for my writer friends.
The Writing Community
One of the things that makes me proud to call myself a writer is the community itself. Throughout our lives, we usually find ourselves involved in various communities and I’ve found that writers tend to be warm, supportive, and generous people. Whether I’m sitting in a live workshop, or interacting with writers online, listening to interviews, or reading books full of writing tips, I always sense kindness from other writers.
Plus, writers come in all shapes and sizes. There are fiction writers, poets, novelists, and of course a slew of nonfiction writers. Some are heavy on the grammar. Others, not so much. Some consider their writing an art. Others view it as a livelihood. Some writers are solitary, shy, and withdrawn. Others are highly social, outgoing, and extroverted.
Exploring the writing community is fun and it can be exciting, especially when you meet other writers that you really connect with. And like all passionate people, writers generally love to talk about their passion and are glad to engage in conversations about grammar or swap writing tips.
Getting Involved
With the Internet, connecting with the writing community has become a snap. It may take awhile to find exactly the type of community you’re looking for, but rest assured, they’re out there. You can find writers blogging, hanging out in forums, and participating in community projects like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).
Looking for an offline writing community? Check with your community center to see if there are any local writing groups you can join. Book clubs are a great place to find other writers. One of the best places to meet and mix with writers is in a workshop or class, so see if any creative writing classes are offered at a nearby community college.
Whether you join a small writing community or start your own, you will reap incredible benefits and pleasures from mingling with other writers, and by simply being a writer, you are already part of the larger writing community, so why not get a little more involved?
You can always start by leaving a comment and sharing your own writing community experiences. Have you found a great online forum or are you looking for one? Did you ever participate in a workshop that changed the way you viewed your work? Do tell!
And keep on writing.
Hi Melissa!
I just joined my first online writing group over at Quiet Rebel Writer. It’s a warm community and we’re still so new. We just did intros (saw Zoe of Essential Prose over there too). I just have to figure out the yahoo groups thing cuz I’m so new at it. It’s so great to be in an encouraging community full of writers who are as passionate as you.
Next January, I can’t wait to join a nonfiction class that I signed up for and meet other like minded writers. It can especially lonely to be often around your non writer friends who can’t understand why you’re squealing over a new piece of novel that just came out or why you’re pumping your fists at just delivering one glorious piece of prose.
Kates last blog post..The Devil Wants You Dead – 5
Kate, I’ve participated in online writing forums but I haven’t gotten involved in groups like the one you mentioned. I’ll have to take a peek. I bet you’ll love your writing class! When I was in college, I took lots of writing classes and that’s where I really began to understand how wonderful it is to be able to interact with other writers. You’ll do great with that!
Melissa, I agree! I have found writers to be kind, generous souls who make the journey so much easier. My friends and family don’t read my blog and think NaNo is something from Mork and Mindy. But within the community there is always someone there to pick up your spirits when your muse drives off in someone else’s limo while blowing kisses at you. The internet has made it easy to connect with other writers and lots of different communities. I love that!
Karen Swims last blog post..Help! – Not Just a Beatles Song
That’s what I love about the Internet too – it’s made it so easy to find other writers and connect, especially within the blogosphere. I have long believed that the Internet is the next frontier for writers. It’s the perfect format and venue for what we do! Sometimes I puzzle over why writers are all so nice and I think it’s because part of our job is to understand human nature. Perhaps that gives writers a little extra patience and empathy.
For years, I wrote in complete isolation. I never sent anything out and I rarely let anyone read what I finished. If this sounds familiar, then I say “Get thee to a writing community!”
Not only will you make more progress at a faster pace but you will also find that there are plenty of people just like you.
Some writing communities are more difficult to break into than others, but generally speaking I find that in the online world writers will usually skooch over to make room for a new face. It’s all about helping each other with this crazy art form that’s half-beauty, half-therapy.
Jamie Grove – How Not To Writes last blog post..Best Little Christmas Story
Jamie, writers do seem to love helping and encouraging one another. I don’t know if we just lack a competitive nature or what, but it’s definitely the warmest community I’ve ever been a part of and I love it. You’re right about getting involved in the community – it does help you become better, faster, and feel more comfortable with your own work.
The first writing community I got into was back in the summer of ‘03. I went to a college-like summer program for high school students interested in the arts, with my “major” being creative writing. I met some of the best people there and fortunately I’m still able to talk to some of them today. We still share poems and remember the good ol’ days of the poetry we wrote back then. It’s a strange refreshing feeling having them read your work, or you reading theirs, and it’s not quite easy to explain.
Unfortunately, when I went to “real” college and had a similar poetry class/workshop, I didn’t get the same bond I had with the other classmates. Maybe it was me, I’m not sure. But since then I’ve shifted my writing focus in other areas and commune with my film making friends. I can only communicate on the internet since we all live in different states. But we enjoy critiquing the scripts we send each other. So that’s always good, trusted and honest feedback I appreciate.
And there’s always your lovely blog and the people I met and continue to meet because of it.
Yeah, it’s not easy to explain but the best way I could sum it up is that the writing community helps you, as a writer, feel like you belong to something greater than yourself but that is also a part of who you are. There’s a good chance the way you felt it your “real” college class had to do with how the instructor formatted it or perhaps it was just too large a class. I always found that smaller workshops fostered a more close-knit community. And critiques! Nobody can help with critiques like other writers
Unless you count writing classes in college, I’ve never actually been part of a writers’ group, but I think that–especially with the internet–we’re not as solitary and shy as we like to think we are. In fact, I think writers are a lot chattier and sociable than they want to admit, even if a lot of them (us?) are happier filtering through a keyboard. We can’t all gather around a watercooler, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all get virtually together to commiserate about those dangling participles!
–Debs last blog post..Looking for a Moral
Deb, I completely agree and I think it’s because we’re so wordy! Writers might be shy in face-to-face interactions (I know — not all writers) but when it comes to interacting through the written word, well… that’s what we do!
Hi Melissa: It’s so important to connect with people who “get” what you do. It’s great to have access to a group of people you know you can rely on when you have a question or need some moral support, as well as people you can share your new finding or experiences with. In a community everyone helps everyone else shorten their learning curve.
Marelisa, it’s so true, and often it’s one of the things writers don’t talk about but will mention in passing. I like to listen to interviews with published authors, agents, etc. and they often mention their “writer friends” but rarely talk about how important is to have such friends. It is so very important!
Yes, it is so important to be able to talk about writing — whether you’re talking about writing style, narrative voice, or just your mundane little writing routine!
I’ve made a few writer friends out here in Thailand, which has been great for support. I’m really excited to be part of the new online writer’s group that Kate mentioned above — can’t wait to see how that works out.
Zoes last blog post..Creating Time to Create
Zoe, I also think it’s just plain fun to talk about writing. I’ve never been great at small talk but I love to dig into big subjects. I guess I’m just geeky like that
I share in your geekdom
Zoes last blog post..Creating Time to Create
There can never be too many geeks around
Hi Melissa! Yeah, I drive some of my friends crazy with my incessant need to discuss ideas. I’m lucky to have a few real life friends who write and I can chat with. I am glad to have the Internet and all the people put there who are willing to listen, read, offer criticism and so forth – but there are only 24 hours in one day. I’ve taken many classes on writing, some great and some detrimental – depending on the teacher in most cases.
Between work, writing my blog and novels, I barely have time for any more extras LOL! Not to mention, I like to read too. It’s enough to make my head spin
Bobby Revells last blog post..Forgotten Slabs of Nothingness
Bobby, Sometimes I think writing might be the single most time consuming hobby or livelihood out there. There’s just so much to do! There are times I get caught up in my work and projects and I stray a bit from the community but it’s usually not long before I need to connect with people again – people who can relate
Hi Melissa – I’ve found a few good writers forums over the years. But I’ve never joined an offline writers group – I don’t live near a big city, so there isn’t a lot of options.
But I have done a couple of Arvon courses and they’re a lot of fun, as you spend all your time writing and learning about different types of writing with other writers. And there’s no TV or other distractions either.
Most writers I’ve met have been friendly and helpful.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Live The Dream In Vancouver, Canada
Hi Cath! When I first started this blog, I searched high and low for blogs about writing and frankly, I didn’t come up with much. Now, I know about dozens of great writing blogs and all of them have amazing communities, many of those are interconnected to each other. Forums are awesome, and I especially like those for poetry and workshopping.
Moviepoet.com is an exceptional place to exhibit and hone your screenplay writing craft. Every month there is a *free* five page screenplay contest, as well as a few additional contests thrown in for fun. I accentuate *free* for a majority of screenplay writing sites charge to enter the contest. Not only are you not paying to write, but a vast array of the writers have had their scripts shot into short films by indie filmmakers. The winning entries, and honorable mentions, are noted in a filming magazine.
It’s really quite the thrill. Why haven’t you signed up already? Hell, I’m there!
Shane Shearers last blog post..A Pathetic Blog
The internet is especially awesome for connecting to writers when there aren’t any in your area. I’m certain I’m the only playwright in my little town
I find it so interesting how we connect online through our words and thoughts – there’s nothing else in the way, no awkward small talk, no need to be shy or insular. We get talk about writing, right away!
Hi Lindsay, I have to agree because I love the Internet for connecting with other writers and I agree about the small talk too! We get to keep the focus on writing, writing, writing, and really, what’s better to talk about than that?
Nice article. I agree, the online writing community has been a huge help compared to going it solo all the time.
“the non-writers in my life wanted to know if I’d already sent it out to get published. My writer friends said, “Good for you! When are you going to start revising?””
Hahaha. I feel that one!
@ Karen re “within the community there is always someone there to pick up your spirits ”
Yes, so true. It is a good feeling.
A writing teacher I had at UCLA who had published many books said that it was her writing group of 3 that really kept her moving. I think they all published and did well and were friends for 20 years or so.
@ t.sterling — Not everyone is the right person or group for you. If it doesn’t feel right, move along until you find the group of people that do feel right. The right group of people are the people who accept and love you as you are. You don’t have to try to be something else to fit their idea of cool. College age is all about fitting in, so people can be unkind and offputting out of their own insecurities.
screenwritingforhollywoods last blog post..And the Oscar Goes to… Milk!
@screenwritingforhollywood, unfortunately I learned that the hard way. But I was only at that college for a year, and by the end of my last semester I found a group of friends that I could relate to on a writer’s level and they were film makers, comic book readers and video gamers.
t.sterlings last blog post.."the day the earth stood still (2008)" film review
Yeah, going it solo is no fun. Sometimes reading a blog or book about writing or listening to an interview with a writer also makes me feel more connected. Nothing beats a good, writerly heart-to-heart though