Why We All Need a Writing Community

All of us start on the writing path from different places and with different experiences. We may have been inspired by reading other stories, or participating in an online fandom, or any other of a thousand circumstances.

Somewhere along our path, we realized an online writing community existed. Often, we made that discovery when searching for an answer to our writing or publishing questions.

Not only are there countless writing workshops or books we can buy, but there are also countless writing blogs and resources giving away help and information for free. That willingness to help each other is one major aspect of what makes the writing community so special.

I’ve written several times about why the writing community is so awesome, but a recent post in relation to the #cockygate issue reiterated for me just how important that connection is for our career. Let’s take a look…

7 Benefits of the Writing Community

The most commonly stated benefits of the writing community are related to the reasons we usually discover its existence:

1. We Answer Questions and Help Each Other Learn

As I mentioned above, whatever our questions about writing or publishing, there’s a fair chance that someone has written a blog post on the topic. If we can’t find helpful answers on the topic, we can duck into any of a hundred writing forums and ask questions of the members.

Whether we’re more familiar with Book Twitter, Facebook writing groups, or independent forums (Kboards.com, Absolute Write, RWA, etc.), there’s no shortage of places where authors gather. While some aren’t as friendly or welcoming as others, we can continue exploring until we find a group for us.

2. We Support and Recognize Each Other’s Hard Work

Once we find a good group for us, we tend to make friends with our fellow writers. Rather than seeing each other as competition we need to trample, we cheer each other on—or crack the whip for motivation (whichever approach we need *grin*)—and genuinely celebrate each others’ successes.

Sure, some authors don’t play nice, but they’re the exception. That’s why—when we confront badly behaving authors—accusations of “You’re just jealous” ring so false. In general, we’re not a bunch of jealous haters.

3. We Help Each Other Grow and Strengthen Our Skills

For many of us, we find our critique partners or beta readers through our connections with the writing community. We push each other to be better, to improve our craft.

Many writing organizations run critique/beta groups within their mini-community, attempting to help writers find good matches. Some writing forums are entirely centered on providing critique help.

4. We Watch Out for Each Other and Our Careers

The #cockygate issue was a fantastic example of how the writing community pulls together to help each other. Lawyers and cover artists volunteered their time to assist affected authors. Writers shared links to the books of affected authors to try to minimize the damage to their income.

RWA jumped in to help all authors (not just members in the romance genre) get the message to Amazon to stop pulling down books. Together, the community found solutions.

5. We Share Our Expertise with Each Other

Within our writing groups, we can also put out calls along the lines of “Hey, is anyone here a nurse? I have a question about a hospital procedure for my story.” Our day job, hobbies, struggles, obstacles, or even where we live can result in experiences and expertise that might help our fellow writers.

We’re all experts in something, even if it’s something as “ordinary” as fighting for insurance coverage. And being part of a writing group means that we might have experiences that provide story or character insights to other authors.

6. We Update Each Other on New Techniques

In many groups, when an author discovers something that does or doesn’t work, they’ll share their findings rather than keep the information to themselves.

For example, when some authors started offering their first book free, they shared download and sell-through figures so others could gauge the success of the technique. Those authors could have kept their findings to themselves and ride the wave of sales before letting others into the “secret,” but they didn’t. Again, of course there are exceptions, but in general, we’re a generous group when it comes to sharing information.

7. We Share Opportunities and Raise Each Other Up

We often find other writers we respect in our writing groups. If we get an opportunity to form a panel of authors for a workshop at a conference, or if we’re looking for authors to join us for an anthology, we’re likely to reach out to authors we know and respect.

At the same time, our opportunities to join in other authors’ endeavors increase when we’re part of the community. We’re more likely to hear about opportunities when we’re plugged into the conversation, and we’re more likely to receive invitations when we’ve earned respect from other authors.

What Happens If We Don’t Have a Writing Community?

I was reminded of how important our writing community is when I read a post about the #cockygate issue. As I mentioned last time, our brand is what others think of us, and Faleena Hopkins, the author behind the cocky trademark, hasn’t impressed anyone with her threatening, trollish behavior.

But Cassie Sharp wrote a fantastic “open letter” to Faleena that added another layer of insight for the situation. And more relevant to my point here, she pointed out how a strong connection to the writing community might have prevented Faleena from making so many mistakes.

As Cassie says to Faleena:

“You think other authors were out to get you. You think this because:

1. You got one-star reviews on Goodreads for books you haven’t written yet.
2. Other books were published with the same cover models and similar titles.
3. Other books had the same character names as yours.
4. Some of your books showed up on iBooks that you didn’t put there when you’re in KU.
5. There was similar content in some of your books in other author’s books.

Those are all the reasons you gave. … And when I closely examined these things, it hit me. You don’t know. You have no idea.

These are problems that almost every author I know has. It’s part of the business. … Because these are common problems in this business.

Hell, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve encountered something crazy or a problem, did a search in one of the groups, and BAM here are a list of people who’ve talked about the same sh*t…and now I have answers. These relationships are invaluable.”

What Faleena interpreted as targeted attacks from fellow authors she saw as enemies, any writer plugged into the writing community would have known wasn’t personal. Because of that lack of context, she sees herself as a victim and has lashed out without care for her victims.

2 More Ways Our Writing Community Helps Us Succeed

None of that excuses what she’s done of course. She chose how to react to her situation, and her choice was to eliminate all competition for search results on the word cocky—even if it meant destroying the livelihood of fellow authors.

9 ways the writing community helps us with our career... Click To TweetLike in our stories, just because we understand a villain’s motivations doesn’t make them less of a villain. But the situation does point out the real need we have for writing friends, or as Cassie calls it, our writing tribe.

So let’s add a couple of items to our list of benefits from above…

8. We Let Each Other Know What’s Normal

As Cassie mentioned, if Faleena had writing friends to ask, she would have known her problems were normal. She would have known not to take them personally. She would have known not to attack other authors in return.

But she didn’t have that attitude. Does she not have any writing friends to ask? I don’t know, but this ability of the writing community to provide context for our experiences is important on many levels.

I can’t count how many times I’ve seen tweets from experienced authors letting newbies know not to give up in the face of rejection. Or cheering debut authors on their release with a side of insights into how the disappointments accompanying their release day are normal as well.

When we share experiences, we’re not just paving the way for others to follow, we’re also helping each other see the big picture. We’re better able to recognize scams or problems if we know what to expect.

9. We Prevent Each Other from Making Mistakes

The friendships we form within our writing groups can grow into private emails or chats, providing us a “safe space” to vent and complain without exposing our ass in public. Our friends can talk us off the ledge of frustration, or they can give us the “Oh, honey, no” warning before we make mistakes.

With my friends, we often check in with each other. When our hurt feelings might have us take reviews personally, we’re there for each other to be a sympathetic ear, a sounding board for worries, or reassurance of how the review isn’t as bad as feared. Same with many other issues we all encounter in this profession.

Friends are always great to have, but in this case, we need writing friends. We need friends who know what’s what in Publishing Land and will tell us when we’re wrong.

Those outside the industry won’t know what’s normal, so they’ll potentially make us see issues where there aren’t any. For example, in Faleena’s case, she talked about her readers pointing out similar covers (which is normal for indicating your genre and happens with stock photos), cover models, or character names. Readers don’t know what’s normal or not, and she allowed their interpretation to drive her sense of victim-hood.

As Cassie pointed out, any talk with writing friends would have clued Faleena into the fact that these events were perfectly normal. She would have known not to overreact and destroy her brand and career over a misinterpretation and instinct to take things personally.

The Risks of Listening to Non-Writers

Yet it’s possible to think we’re plugged into the writing community and still miss out on these last two benefits. There’s a reason I keep emphasizing our need for writing friends.

That’s because the explosion of self-publishing has brought in plenty of scammers and other opportunists. The people who are more interested in the quick buck than writing craft.

If we’re not careful, we could limit our writing community to groups filled with marketers who just happen to have chosen writing as their modus operandi for sales. Obviously, it’s not wrong to want to make money, but some “writing” groups care only about sales and nothing about quality or ethics (or legality).

If we're not connected to the writing community, we might risk harming our career. Click To TweetThat’s not to say that we shouldn’t ever join any marketing-focused groups. We can often learn a lot about marketing and advertising and copywriting from them. That’s good knowledge to have.

But we need to keep in mind that these marketers who just happen to write (rather than writers who do marketing on the side) aren’t any better at being “industry insiders” for that issue of context and normality than most readers would be.

Marketers often come to writing through a different path than those who become writers due to a love of writing. They might come to the writing community with more of a cutthroat attitude, focusing on a goal of eliminating the competition. They might not embrace the generosity and benefits of a true community of writers.

Our Writing Community Needs to Be Filled with Writers

If we don’t have a balance of writing groups—some more focused on writers rather than marketers—we might turn to the wrong people for help when we wonder how we should handle a situation. We might let their interpretation drive our decision to either privately vent or publicly take revenge.

Even if we’re a skeptic who doesn’t believe in or trust our community’s generosity, we should ensure that we’re plugged into those writing/publishing-focused groups for balance. After hanging out with the awesome writers who share information, give away tools, and work to build up the community, we might find a few friends who are exceptions to our cynical attitude and help us along our writing career.

Our “safe spaces” need to be filled with those who truly understand the twists and turns of the industry. We need good enough friends who will hold us back and keep us out of trouble when we’re wrong. We need friends who will tell us what’s what and help us navigate our career path without making too many mistakes.

We need a writing community. *smile*

How connected are you to the writing community? What benefits have you seen? Have you noticed the marketing-focus style of some “writing” groups, and if so, what’s your perspective on their pros or cons? Do you agree with my advice to ensure our safe spaces are full of writers who understand the industry, not just the sales/marketing aspect? Do you have a writing tribe or safe space to get perspective?