Being an author is, for the most part, a very isolating and lonely way of life. If you are like me, much of the time I need absolute silence and a distraction-free environment to produce anything coherent. On occasion, I get into a rhythm where I can write with other people in the room watching television, but that is a rare event. I’m also finding that as I get older, it’s even harder to concentrate on the writing process at all. For me, this is really discouraging because I have adult children and a wife, and our lives a very intertwined. I can only imagine when the get married and have children how distracted I’ll be!
When I first began my journey as an author, though, I had heard about “writing communities” where authors get together to talk about their work, get ideas from one another, and critique their pieces. I believe that can be a delightful, yet terrifying experience! I love the idea of having an opportunity to meet with other people, encourage each other in the writing process, and discover how to write even better. But to share my work with others is the epitome of vulnerability for me! I would really have to build a relationship with others and trust them with my most raw writing before I think that would work. It would be hard, but I could definitely see the benefits of meeting together.
I also have a very specific way in which this community would run. I imagine my group would sit around a table, share a meal and some drinks together, while we talked about our lives. Next, we would share our current work with each other, maybe focusing on just one person’s writing at a time. We talked about what we think is going well, offer some suggestions on how to improve the piece, and then joyfully go on to dessert and coffee! For me, I want pleasant and comfortable. I don’t know if that’s how it works in the real world.
If you are involved in this type of community, I would love to hear about your experiences. If you would like to try this out, I’m up for working something out with you. I’m sure that it wouldn’t be like I imagine, but I still would love to share with other writers and gain some knowledge from their experiences. I think that being in this type of community will most certainly improve our writing abilities.
Harry L. Estes 