It takes a village!

When people describe being a writer, they often call it a lonely craft. And traditionally, I can understand that. I would imagine, that the days before the Internet this was true. I can imagine the writers of yesteryear being incredibly lonely.

But this is 2018, MOFO’s! 

There’s no reason to be lonely anymore.

Sure while we’re actually writing, we’re in seclusion. Assuming we’re actually doing the writing bit of claiming being a writer.

Because as I’m sure you know, writing is about 80% saying we’re going to write 15% procrastination and 5% actually writing-writing.
–Author Claire Smith

But let’s focus on that 80% saying we’re going to write. Because that’s the part that makes writing not so lonely. And that’s why I call out BS on the modern writers who call writing a lonely craft.

For who do we tell that we’re going to be writing? Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr. And those wonderful platforms all have the wonderful #amwriting community.

A community full of crazy people who knows what it’s like to feel crazy.

Who understand when our normal friends and family doesn’t really understand what you mean when you tell them your passion is writing. The ones who ask you what it’s like to be a writer, but when you try to explain to them they kind of look at you like they don’t really care they were just asking to be polite, or who think you’re crazy from what you’re describing.

Your normal friends will say “huh, cool” and then quickly change the subject. Or they’ll magically know someone else who is a writer and talk about that person. Or perhaps they’ll start talking about what their favorite book is. And then you start to wonder if they actually ever considered all the work that went into their favorite book, or if they just care about the final product. And then you’ll wonder why you’re friends with the normal person. Or perhaps more accurately, why that normal friend is friends with you. After all, they’re so normal! You’re so weird! How did that ever work? But then the subject changes, and you’re back to being besties. And your weirdness of being a creative buried once more. Until you get to Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr and unleash your craziness to the poor, unsuspecting Interwebs.

So that’s why it’s so important being part of the #amwriting community. And that’s why I insist every person I find is a writer and not on Twitter that they join Twitter.

Because it takes a village to raise a book. And that village is called Twitter!
–Author Claire Smith 

That’s why sometimes you’ll see long forward’s before a book start, or maybe they’ll thank their community in the back. But those authors are the ones to follow. Those authors check their ego at the first page. They get that the book is not theirs alone. Sure the idea is, the characters are, and the plot might have been theirs alone. But without the immense support of the #amwriting community, without the affirmation that we are not alone in this crazy world of being a creative and that we’re not going mad by making up stuff in our head for the sake of our stories … to them, I say CHEERS and from the bottom of my geeky heart THANK YOU.

So I hope you have a creative week y’all, and get back to #amwriting! Because the 5% of the chart might be small, but damn if it isn’t mighty! When that magic does finally happen, it truly is, well …. magical!

So what are you working on? Would love to hear from you in the comments! Let’s discuss how writing can make us feel like a crazy person, or how people react when you first tell them you’re a writer!