How to Find a Writing Community

Today I’m writing to the writers. To those of you who have asked me questions about sharing your own stories, connecting with other writers, or developing your writing skills. I don’t feel like I am the right person to answer all those questions, but I can share some thoughts and ideas to help you move in the direction you want to go.

1. Begin by asking yourself WHY you want to write. Do you have a specific message you want to share? Does it sound romantic to hole up in a cabin and type by candlelight? Is writing the way you process the world? Or perhaps you are always thinking up stories and like the idea of anchoring them on paper?
2. Next, be honest with yourself about WHO you want reading your writing. Perhaps you’ll decide that God is the only one who are actually comfortable seeing your words. Or maybe you want to write for kids, teens, widows, divorcees, or parrot-owning-one-eyed-pirates? Knowing your audience will also help you figure out what direction to go.

If you can figure out why you want to write, and who you want to write for – that will go a long way in determining what direction to move with your writing. You may discover that you want to stick to journaling and burning them when finished. Or you may decide you want to pitch an article to a website that already serves your ideal reader. And maybe you’ll buy a cabin and move to the woods (please invite me for a long weekend).

The more formal you want to make your writing life, the more I would encourage you to find a writing community to support you. Here you’ll need to ask yourself even more questions about what would be helpful for you in this season of your writing (with the understanding that your needs will change and so can your writing group).

Consider what kind of support you want:

• Learning how to use technology with your writing (blogs, email lists, website construction, etc.)
• Developing your writing skills
• Understanding the more “business” side of writing (publishing, pitching articles, selling books, etc.)
• Encouragement to keep going when writers block hits, or the busyness of life, or a variety of hardships
• Editing of drafts and giving/receiving peer feedback
• Receiving writing prompts, writing “challenges”, and other fun ways of developing your skills and your voice

Lastly, you’ll need to consider how much you can contribute financially to your writing. Starting a website costs money, some writing groups have membership fees, and so on. You’ll want to consider your budget as you look for groups and resources, and be intentional about finding the ones that are truly moving you in the direction you want to go. Just because it is a popular writing group, or has a fancy program for you to work through doesn’t mean it’s actually going to help you meet your goals or bring more glory to God.

And if you have dreams of becoming a writer with a big platform, I want to encourage you from my tiny corner of the internet: it truly is a gift to be a small fish in this big ocean. Having fewer eyes on you means your mistakes land a little softer. Having less followers means you can actually get to know your readers and build relationships with them. Having a smaller platform means you can experiment more and write about a bigger variety of things. Being a smaller fish can help cloak you in humility and give more glory to the Lord.

Be prayerful and be bold. Be thoughtful and then take a risk. Consider how to point others to Jesus, and then start small. And if you want to join the group I’m currently a part of – we’d love to have you (they are not sponsoring this post, nor am I paid by them). It is a wonderful group of Christian women all writing for the glory of God. Some write fiction, others non-fiction. Some write blogs, others write books, articles, Bible studies, and more. We live all over the world and it is a lovely, humble, and encouraging environment.

You can learn more The Writer’s Bloc HERE

Are you already in a writing group you love? Feel free to share it in the comments so other potential writers can learn about it! And if you have specific questions, you are welcome to email me. Happy writing friends!

-Marissa