It\u2019s a difficult thing to write in isolation.<\/p>\n
For one thing, it\u2019s not easy to find motivation ti write when nobody\u2019s reading what you\u2019ve written. Just having a group pf writers who exchange works on a deadline can help push you to buckle down and be productive. It\u2019s almost like the prospect of an empty liquor cabinet, the idea of not dealing with that just isn\u2019t thinkable. Any writer worth his salt can come up with a rationalization to not write today, but it\u2019s harder when you have to admit to your colleagues that you didn\u2019t write today.<\/p>\n
The second thing is that you need somebody else to run an eye over your work. Someone who isn\u2019t too close, the way you are. We know what we mean, even if we don\u2019t convey it. You need somebody else to let you know if your making yourself clear. To call you out of you get too head over heels in love with the sound of your own voice.<\/p>\n
So we rely on our writers\u2019 groups. My author friends were invaluable to me getting my books to a state where they were worthy of publication. I can\u2019t thank them enough.<\/p>\n
Today, with the ubiquity of the internet, it\u2019s easy to find your tribe. I had friends on three continents reading my manuscripts and offering helpful feedback.<\/p>\n
\u2018Twas not always so.<\/p>\n
My first writer\u2019s group, which I renamed the Worst Writers\u2019 Group Ever, formed about 20 years ago. We were all local and met at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore coffee shop to exchange hard copies of our latest works in progress.<\/p>\n
And to totally miss one another\u2019s point.<\/p>\n
Since we were working with a limited pool of writers, we didn\u2019t share a genre. That\u2019s not a complete deal breaker. Writing is writing, and if it\u2019s unclear it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s hard s\/f or romance, any reader can tell you where he or she loses the plot, but it helps if your audience is familiar with the conventions of your chosen genre.<\/p>\n
This group ended up being a group of people who would never see one another socially who sat around a table over overpriced lattes and took turns slagging one another\u2019s passions. I tend to sum it up as \u201cThis story is called \u2018The Walking Dead\u2019<\/em> and I don\u2019t like walking, or<\/em> the dead, so I don\u2019t see why anyone would read it.\u201d<\/p>\n I disbanded the group in December as Christmas present to myself.<\/p>\n Fortunately, today we have better options. The Web abounds with online writers\u2019 groups and there\u2019s no excuse not to find people who are both familiar enough to get where you\u2019re coming from, but honest enough to tell you when you\u2019ve gone too far up your own backside.<\/p>\n So get out there and find your tribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a difficult thing to write in isolation. For one thing, it\u2019s not easy to find motivation ti write when nobody\u2019s reading what you\u2019ve written. Just having a group pf writers who exchange works on a deadline can help push you to buckle down and be productive. It\u2019s almost like the prospect of an empty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}