Farland's Join the Writing Community

I was watching the news and noticed that a new study showed that “If a person has a strong network of family and friends, it vastly improved that person’s life expectancy and longevity.” It turns out that a person with a strong support system is twice as likely to recover from a major accident or illness as someone who doesn’t. Though this article was talking about physical health, it got me to thinking about writing communities and how they relate to your writing health. Very often, we talk about writing being a “lonely profession,” and it can be. Writers tend to get wrapped up in their work. Young writers in particular may have a day job and then try to write on the side, foregoing parties and friendships in the name of productivity. When that happens, the writer may become prone to despair and cynicism. You can go months without good news, with nothing but a few rejections to show for it, and all too often, I’ve seen writers fall out of the habit of writing simply because they don’t have an adequate support system. In short, most of us writers need an occasional kind word as much as we need food or air. When you’re a writer learning the craft, you may go years without selling a manuscript. Sometimes you need the valuable input of others—not just their criticism and feedback, but genuine heartfelt assurance that you’re on the right track. As a young author, I got buoyed up to a huge extent by associating with other writers from my college classes, from my writing group, from workshops, and so on. Someone might ask, “How are you doing on that story?” They had read a part of it, and their excitement kept me going. At one time I belonged to three writing groups at once—and I don’t think that it is a coincidence that I was writing a tremendous amount at the time. Time spent with writing groups and critiquing the work of others actually fueled enthusiasm for my own work. It works in every discipline. My son was once composing a song. I heard him play a riff on the piano and asked, “Is that a song that you heard elsewhere, or is that something you’re working on?” He admitted that it was a song that he’d begun to write, but he only had a small bit of it. I told him, “I really like it. I can’t wait to hear the rest of it.” Oddly, he was composing on the ocarina and then transferring it to the piano. Later, I noticed, he had gotten some change-ups and variations to the song. The same thing happens with our writing. You take the opening to a short story in to your writing group, and they provide encouragement and suggest improvements. Suddenly, even though you might have stalled out on that tale, you find yourself excited about it again. It’s not surprising that with each workshop that I’ve taught over the years, the participants have formed a writing group afterward. A couple of those groups have gone on for decades, and I’ve seen huge growth in the writers involved. Yet many of my readers don’t belong to a writing group. If you’re isolated, living in South Africa or New Zealand or Montana, you might feel that you can’t join a good group. But there are plenty of online groups that you might join. You’ll just have to spend a little time looking. Look for opportunities to become part of a larger writing community. Consider going to meet other writers at conventions, workshops, or online. Writing as a profession is only as lonely as we make it.