It’s incredibly important to have a support network in every area of life. Readers who are parents, for example, will know how vital it is to have friends with children, who are happy to listen to you moan about sleep-deprivation and turn a blind eye when you arrive at their house with porridge smeared across your shirt. Likewise, a big part of working life is camaraderie between colleagues and motivation from your employer.
A Solitary Profession
Unfortunately for writers, it’s easy to feel a little neglected when it comes to professional support. No-one’s there to dangle an incentive or offer you a bonus if you hit your target word count for the day. There’s no worker sitting opposite to bring coffee and cake if you’re having a bad day. Your spouse is quite likely to view your work as a “hobby” and awaits the first million-pound cheque before being drawn into a serious conversation about your credentials as an author. This is why you need to get to know other writers and expand your support network. Not for promotional purposes, but for friendly, good old-fashioned moral support. Fellow freelancers know what it feels like to read a hundred rejection letters before the triumph of an acceptance, can commiserate when the words aren’t flowing, and are probably as keen as you are to have a real-life conversation (having also had only their PC monitor for company all day). It makes sense to have writer friends in your life, but where do you find them?
Writers’ Groups
Writers’ groups are the obvious, traditional port of call for support and inspiration. If you live in large town or city, there is probably one operating near you. The National Association of Writers Groups has a comprehensive list of affiliated groups, listed by region, on their website, www.nawg.co.uk. I f you’re comfortable with the group environment, it can be a great social opportunity and often lead to other exciting projects, such as collaborative work and group publishing. However, with many of us fitting our budding writing careers around other commitments like work and family, it’s not always possible to make it to the dedicated meeting times of such groups. Certain regional groups have found a solution to this, however, with some larger clubs offering ‘associated membership’, designed for those who wish to join but cannot attend meetings. This allows writers to join at a reduced fee and contribute to group publications, discussions, and competitions from home, via the internet. Have a look at your local group’s website to see if this may be an option for you.
Online Communities
There is a wealth of welcoming online forums for writers, and a little careful research can unearth the one that is right for you. You will find that some cover certain genres, whilst others are more general. Some good places to start may be the larger sites, such as www.mywriterscircle.com, which boasts over 30,000 members, or UK-based www.writewords.org.uk. Forums can be a great starting point for a writing idea, with hundreds of other writers keen to share their feedback and suggestions, as well as offering advice on any problems you may encounter, and sharing the successes you achieve. Smaller, more localised communities can be found on social networking sites such as facebook. Search for ‘writing group’ or similar, and thousands will appear in the results. And if you don’t like the look of any of the groups on offer via the site, why not start your own?
Self-Publish
Of course, self-publishing may not be the right choice for everyone, or for every genre of writing. It is, however, worth considering that, should you publish an ebook via Amazon’s Kindle store (which is a free process), you will be granted access to their online writing community. This is a collection of forums covering various writing-related and publishing topics, with the benefit of advice being freely available from many experienced and successful authors. What’s more, there are over 970,000 ebooks currently available on Amazon – that’s a lot of writers, and a lot of forum-users. Visit http://kdp.amazon.com for further information.
Take a Course
Enrolling in a writing course is not just an excellent way of mastering the discipline of writing and honing your techniques; it’s a great way to meet other writers. There are hundreds of writing courses, covering every type of writing, all over the country. And there’s no need to start applying for a student loan – whilst there are degrees on offer in creative writing and journalism, there are also vast numbers of part-time courses, many of which are run in the evening. www.hotcourses.com has links to a variety of courses available at colleges nationwide. If you are unable to commit to attending a course, or just want a more flexible, laid back way to study and make new friends, consider distance learning. This does not necessarily mean sitting alone, scribbling into the night, with no support or encouragement. Enrolling in a distance course usually includes access to online student areas, where you can meet others taking the course and strike up new friendships. Fellow students aside, taking a course provides an added bonus: a tutor. This is likely to be someone with significant writing experience, who will offer you honest and constructive feedback, along with the chance to enlist a knowledgeable mentor onto your growing list of contacts.
Blog
Beginning a blog is a fantastic way of exercising your writing skills and promoting your current projects and it can, too, become a social experience. Sites such as www.blogspot.com provide an easy-to-use interface that enables users to start writing straight away, whilst building contacts with other bloggers. Once you’ve published your first post, anyone interested in the topic you are covering can look you up and start ‘following’ your blog. Before you know it, you will have tens, if not hundreds, of like-minded bloggers with which to start fruitful discussions and build friendships. Likewise, following blogs can be a good way to get to know other writers. There are thousands of writers documenting the ups and downs of their life as freelancers, from those who have made millions to those who are yet to sell their first article. What’s on offer from these blogs is not just the chance to build relationships, but important reassurance that you are not alone!
Keep In Touch
Of course, the key part of any rewarding friendship or mentorship is keeping up regular contact. When you’re working to your own schedule, it’s easy to lean one of two ways: becoming so wrapped up in your work that you don’t spare the time to maintain your support network or, conversely, becoming completely distracted from your work by the groups and forums that you have joined! Find the middle ground. Schedule a portion of your time each day or week to dedicate to keeping in touch with your circle of writing friends. They’ll understand if you’re working to deadlines and can’t email or call every day – remember, they're writers too!
Amanda John - Amanda John is an award-winning fiction writer who also contributes factual articles to writing, parenting, and food/lifestyle ...
