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Summary

The web content emphasizes the importance of being part of a writing community, highlighting the mutual understanding, strength in unity, and collaborative growth that writers can experience.

Abstract

The article "3 Convincing Reasons You Need to be Part of a Writing Community" outlines the significant benefits of writers engaging with a community of their peers. It argues that writers can find immense value in sharing their experiences and challenges with others who understand the craft intimately. The author, Sarah Zama, draws from personal experience to illustrate how a writing community can offer support, enthusiasm, and constructive feedback, which is often unparalleled by responses from non-writers. The piece underscores that collaboration among writers, especially those within the same genre, can lead to an expanded readership and increased visibility for their work. It suggests that authors should view their genre counterparts as allies rather than competitors, as collective promotion can benefit the entire genre. The article concludes by reinforcing the idea that active participation in a writing community not only enhances an author's storytelling abilities but also aids in connecting with potential readers.

Opinions

  • Joining a writing community is incredibly beneficial for authors, providing a sense of belonging and mutual support.
  • Writers within a community can share and relate to the unique frustrations and joys of the writing process in ways that non-writers cannot.
  • The fear of other writers taking away one's readership is unfounded; collaboration can actually expand an author's reach.
  • Authors who write in the same genre should be viewed as allies because they can help each other grow and improve through critique and beta-reading.
  • Working together to promote a genre can create more interest and visibility for all authors involved.
  • Being an active member of a writing community is key to becoming a better storyteller and increasing the chances of being discovered by readers.

3 Convincing Reasons You Need to be Part of a Writing Community

Sharing our writing experience with fellow writers makes us stronger.

Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash

We’re authors. We’re introverts. We make a huge effort to come in contact with other people.

Sharing our writing? It’s the horror of horrors.

I know some authors who hesitate to mingle, prefer to be alone, work solo, and do all their stuff by themselves.

I understand that. Sometimes I feel the same way.

But I have to tell you something: joining a community of like-minded people and sharing everything about our writing with each other is the best thing that ever happened to me as an author.

Don’t believe those who say that the writing community is a nest of vipers where ‘your death is my life.’ I suppose it may be like that for some of us.

But in the end, I believe that we build our own community, and so we should put every positive effort into it.

As for myself, since the beginning, I felt a part of the community I chose.

I found awesome people who would share their experiences and help me find my way. I found authors who write in the same genre as I do who are willing to share and do things together. There are writers willing to help me make my story the best it can be.

When I decided to start my blog, many of my fellow authors came visiting and gave me advice on what to do and how to do it.

The writing community is my happy place.

3 reasons to be part of a writing community

I’m sure you’ve heard, and you’ll hear all kinds of things about the writing community.

Here are my two cents about why being part of a community is a good idea:

1. No one can understand a writer like another writer

It’s true. I’ve experienced it.

Sometimes we think that the frustrations, doubts, insecurities, and joys and the enthusiasm we feel as authors will not be understood by anyone. But that’s not true.

All writers will understand. They know what outlining a story means, what it means to discover a character or to work out a narrative structure.

I’ve started serialising a new story on my blog three weeks ago. Of my family, only my sister knows it. Nobody knows it at work. Only a few of my friends know it.

But my writing community? I pestered everyone with my joy for being finally able to post my story, after three years of work.

I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm my fellow writers gave me — very different from the polite smile of the other people I told about it who don’t belong to the writing community.

They just don’t know. I don’t blame them.

2. Unity truly is our strength

Some writers seem to think that if they work with other authors, then those authors will eventually take their readership away.

This sounds like nonsense to me. I mean, I do understand the fear, but honestly, my experience is the exact opposite.

When authors work together, especially when they write in the same genre, they expand their reach.

Readers love to read and to discover new stories. They consume stories faster than any author can write them.

If a reader loves an author and their work, and they find out that the author and I are friends, and we respect each other’s work, what do you think they’ll do? Drop my friend to follow me?

Of course not. They’ll follow and read both of us.

3. The authors who write in our same genre are our brothers and sisters, not our enemies

It may be easy to think that authors who write in our same genre are our competitors.

I find that the exact opposite is true: authors who write in our same genre are our allies.

Working together will help us grow as authors. We’ll critique and beta-read our fellow writers’ stories (which will help our own story too — but that’s an article for another day).

We’ll promote ourselves as well as the genre we write in, and our combined strength will help to create more interest and visibility for our genre.

It’s a win-win on all sides.

Being a good, proactive member of a healthy writing community is the main thing that will make us better storytellers. And it’s one of the many things that will help readers find us.

I really believe it.

Sarah Zama wrote her first story when she was nine. Fourteen years ago, when she started her job in a bookshop, she discovered books that address the structure of a story and she became addicted to them. Today, she’s a dieselpunk author who writes fantasy stories historically set in the 1920s. Her life-long interest in Tolkien has turned quite nerdy recently. She writes about all her passions on her blog https://theoldshelter.com/

Writing
Writing Community
Writing Tips
Self Improvement
Motivation
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