Make Friends With Other Writers

I think having other writers as your friends can only enhance the writing part of your life. Who else understands what it takes to craft a publishable piece of writing? What other friend knows the agony of rejection? Who else will empathize with occasional writers block or lack of inspiration?

Who rejoices more with you when you have writing success than your writer friends? Who do you turn to when you have a problem with your writing? Your writer friends. Who gives you pep talks when you're down about the way your writing life is going? Your writer friends. Who do you turn to for marketing advice? Your writer friends. Who do you ask to help you spread the word when you have a book to sell? Those same people.

Where do you find friends like this? One way is to join writing organizations and critique groups. When I first joined my state organization for authors, I didn't attend the annual conventions because there was always a conflict with K-State football games. I let going to the games with my husband take precedence, and I'm not one bit sorry about that, but I didn't get to know the other writers that attended convention on a regular basis. On years the game was played somewhere else that first weekend of October, I opted to go to the convention week-end. The first year, I felt like a real stranger, but as I attended more often, and then started teaching workshops there, I began acquiring a nice group of friends.

When I first joined my online critique group, the 20+ women in it were scattered around the globe and all strangers to me. It didn't take long for those women to become familiar people in my life and finally, good friends. I can whine to them when my writing life isn't going so well and I can blow my horn when I have been published. They don't consider it bragging. Instead, they are enthused at the news.

With the social media we have today, we make friends on facebook writing pages and other similar places. I have many friends made this way, people I've never met face to fact but still consider friends.

There are writers who prefer to be loners. They write alone, don't belong to writing groups of any kind and are, apparently, content with that. I much prefer having lots of writing friends. We share so much with each other.

Think about the place writing friends have in your life. What if they all suddenly vanished? I know I'd feel like something big was missing from my life. Nurture those friendships you have with other writers. They're like stars in the sky. There are many but each one is unique.