Why Join a Writing Community

Besides making new friends, why would an author wish to join a writing community. Here are the many reasons support is needed as an author.

Critiques: Joining a group of writers to share your work and hearing other peoples thoughts on it, is a way to improve your writing. When you are the only one who reads your manuscript, you miss things. Here are some examples of feedback you might get. (List copied from a Google search.)

• Plot holes: You might introduce a character and never have them do anything? Maybe in chapter one you called your character Chance but accidentally wrote Charlie in chapter ten. What if you are writing a futuristic story and all of a sudden there is a Studebaker instead of a rocket ship?

• Pacing: You might enjoy the three page, lyrical description of the Grand Canyon at the beginning of your first chapter, but if you don't start the action soon, people might close the book. Or maybe your character jumps a building, races a car, kills the bad guys, buys a taco, and tucks his kid into bed in one page.

• Character arcs: Is it realistic to expect a bad guy to change his ways after attending a tea party? Can your character go from bubbling Bobbie Sue Goodie Two-shoes to Raving, lunatic devil in one page? Are your characters changes believable?

• Climax: Will your reader be satisfied with this ending? Does it meet the norms of the genre? I mean, loves stories don't usually end with death, and horror stories don't usually end with everyone surviving.

• Themes: Is there one? Does there have to be one? Will people get upset over what you've decided to say?

• Grammar, sentence structure, use of words, transitions, factual errors: All these things can be easily missed in your own writing. Maybe you use a particular word too often. Or maybe you jump from yesterday to three years later without preparing the reader. What if you somehow give away the ending too soon? What if you wrote, by accident, WWII but said the year 1917 (Because you also talked about WWI)

Learning the Craft: In writing communities, people go out of their way to help other authors. They provide feedback in critique groups. They offer educational resources by sharing websites, presentations, and other courses.

Encouragement: Authors spend hours alone in front of a computer, or at a desk with a pencil, writing their story. They are engrossed in their world and all they can talk about is what's happening. Then they flip and think everything they have written is trash and they want to delete it all. Most people don't get why someone would spend three months writing a story only to wake up one day and want to trash it. But other authors understand this struggle, the self-doubt. They understand why an author rewrites a chapter ten times. Sharing these challenges helps normalize a writer's world.

Ideas: Is writer's block real? If you know a writer, you'll probably say, Yes it is!" Being part of a writing community helps writers brainstorm ideas. Inspiration comes in all forms. It could be a positive comment someone says about your chapter. It can be an off the cuff remark one person says to another about how they got an idea. It could be a question someone asks about your character's motivation. Writers can dig themselves into a hole and sometimes it takes a community to help them out.

Accountability: When will you finish chapter four? If you don't have someone else badgering you about your manuscript, you may never get it done. Being part of a community encourages authors to finish what they start.

Friendship: When you spend time with other authors sharing stories, discussing the ins and outs of the industry, showing your growth as well as your setbacks, you form long lasting friendships.

Imposter Syndrome: Many writers, even after publishing their book, question their profession. They deny being a writer. "I only have one book." "It was a fluke, it will never happen again." "I should do something more productive." "Why am I here?" Being in a community of writers will help authors be seen, heard, felt, and acknowledged as a writer.