COMMUNITY

Why Community?

Writing is the most solitary and yet most necessarily communal activity I have found.

Before the work, there must be a world out there that deserves to be peopled through my imagination and onto the page, and I am not nearly creative enough to spin that world from whole cloth. The peopled worlds (real and otherwise) I have known and read and felt are just the stuff of which dreams are spun.

However, without the opportunity to be alone with my thoughts, I have not been successful in producing work. I have learned that I must draw inwards to allow what will happen to happen. I need refuge.

However, without community, there is nothing that sustains me. It was the discovery of writing community that changed my life. I have found the generosity of spirit of my fellow writers has been encouraging, hopeful, beautiful, and, on occasion, the precise sort of mule-kick of reality that is necessary. These are folks who have shared wisdom, wit, brainstorming, advice, laughter, and tears with me. I am better for them.

If you are a creative, find your people. The stardust in your mind will not dim in their shadows.

Feeling inspired? Good. Call yourself a writer, find a group that will have you, and see what happens. Check out your local library's bulletin boards and website for virtual or in-person groups for a start! Take a class. Take a chance.

Feeling generous? I would ask you to support places that have nurtured me...

Thank you.