Hello, blog followers!
Today I want to just share something new with all of you that I’ve been working on, and invite you to be a part of it if you want to.
A few weeks ago, I created a forum on my website. This was cool and all, but today’s post is about something more specific: it’s about the importance of community as writers.
**Update as of 2020: The forum is still there, but now I also have a Facebook group specifically for fellow writers, where we can chat about all things writing and the writing craft. You can request to join here. I also now have a Discord server, where I can communicate with all of you more directly! You can find out about that here.**
Writing is essentially a solitary activity. Sure, you can write collaboratively, but at some point in that process, you’re most likely going to have to sit down and do the solo-act of tunneling inside your own mind and putting words to paper.
I’m an introvert, and writing solo really doesn’t bother me. Maybe you’re the same way.
But…
I have learned how much stronger, how much better, my writing can be when I have the benefit of a writing community.
Writing communities provide a source of encouragement, feedback, and support. They are the people you call when you’re stuck or you found a plot hole and you need someone to talk through it with. They are the people you message when you know you need to write that next 2,000 words but you just can’t make yourself do it, and they are the people you email your first draft to when you’ve finally finished it and you need a trusted beta reader to be a second set of eyes.
Writing communities matter. And sure, you can find them in lots of different places. But sometimes, it’s good to form new ones, to shake things up, or to just expand the variety and base group of writers you have in your community.
For that reason, I have created a new section on my site’s forum called Writers Helping Writers. Its sole purpose is to provide a place — or another place, if you already have one — to engage together as writers, ask questions, dialogue, and just generally help and encourage one another.
I would love it if you would stop by and join my forum, and be part of the conversation!
As of this post, that section of my forum has just been created and is empty, so… I could really use some people to get the conversation going! (It’s hard to have a community all by myself!)
Thank you all for reading, and I hope to see you in my forum!
–Crystal
(CCrawfordWriting)