Writing is such a solitary job. It can feel really lonely, especially when you don’t have coworkers. Writing and publishing can take a really long time. Doing it alone makes it easier to lose hope and give up.
How can we make it feel less lonely then? Finding a community of writers we can talk to, write with, and share our struggles with.
So how do we find this community? It can be difficult, but it can also be easy. The main thing to remember is you will get what you give. The more you seek out the community, the more likely you find it.
Most authors I know are very introverted, so it can be hard for us to put ourselves out there and find friends, but we have to be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable if we wanna find a community.
Here are three ways to find community:
Social Media
Social media is such a great way to connect with like-minded individuals. Bookstagram is wildly popular and there are tons of authors on there who are also seeking community. If Instagram is something you’re good at, then I highly recommend reaching out to fellow authors. Feel free to respond to their Instagram stories, comment on their post, or maybe even send them a private message. If you’ve read their books, let them know what you think (keep it positive). If someone has published more books than you, send them a question asking for advice. This would be a great way to build that community.
Join a writing group
In my experience, this is going to be the best option. This yielded the best results for me. I gained such a beautiful writing community by joining writing groups.
So how do you find a writing community? Well, there are a few different places you can look. The most obvious answer NaNoWriMo website. NaNoWriMo is a month-long writing challenge that happens in November. The website has a community board where you can find others who are also participating in the challenge. You can also find a group that is in your area and they may have writing events. I was able to join a group for my area two years ago when I did NaNoWriMo. My group leader hosted writing sprints over Zoom almost every day of the week, so I always had someone to write with. It was really fun.
Another place you can find a writing group is on the MeetUp app. I searched for a writing group in my local area on the app but didn’t have any luck finding one, so I made my own. I joined a community called Shut Up and Write and I started hosting a weekly writing group. We would meet in a café and just write for one hour. This was a great opportunity for me to make in-person friends with other writers. It was also a great way to get encouragement and motivation to keep writing as every week I was meeting with other writers and we were writing together.
The third place you can look for community is Discord. There are tons of Discord channels dedicated to writers. On these Discord channels they may host writing sprints or have conversations about craft and plot and characters or simply just a place to commiserate with other writers, it’s great and doesn’t require a commitment.
Find a critique partner
This can be done in a number of ways. One way that I found a fellow writer who I was able to share work with was through the website Fiverr. She hired me to beta-read her book, and I hired her to beta-read my book. we kept doing this, and we eventually became really good friends who shared advice and our work with each other. There are many different ways you can find a critique partner. Websites are dedicated to this, or again, social media or even Discord.
Can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. I wish you the best of luck in finding your people as you continue on your writing journey.
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