Hello from the land of Sickness! I’ve got a bad case of Jazz Voice (when your voice drops an octave and gets all raspy), so it’s been a quiet weekend over here. That being said, this will be a short update.
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about writing community. Since I spend a lot of my time working on projects alone, I think it’s important to have a community that I can check in with. While organized workshops are valuable and important, it’s also important just to have other writers to talk to.
Like milling around the water cooler at an office, having a writing community is like have regular coworkers that you can check in with and talk to. I have a group of friends that are also writers that I talk to frequently when I’m stuck or struggling with a scene. We motivate each other, write with each other and talk about the things in our projects that frustrate us. Sometimes, we’ll just sit in the same space and write at the same time. It’s like the quietest party you’ve ever been to.
We also celebrate our successes! Whether it’s 500 words written or a book that’s getting published, it’s very important to have a group of people you can be excited with! Friends and family will get excited about big milestone, but the little ones are also important to keep in mind.
Do you have a writing group that you talk with? How do you support each others goals, big or small?