Is writing really a solitary act?

Yes and No (Plus the Giveaway winner is revealed)

Something that I have discovered over the last few years is the necessity of having a writing community. Necessity might sound strong and I pondered other words but I landed here with ‘necessity’ because I really believe that’s what it is.

The actual act of writing is, almost without exception, a solitary one. You need silence, you need to be alone (unless you are collaborating, and even then, there are probably many hours of solitary time, just you and the computer), and being a writer certainly requires you to be ok with your own company.

Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash

However, us writers need each other. We need people to share with who get it, just like those in any other job. We need friends we can talk in shorthand to, who understand that sometimes pursuing a writing life feels crazy but we do it anyway. We need people who will cheer us on when the rejections have piled up and people to celebrate the wins (big and small). We need people we can share our work with who understand how to critique it and feedback on it. In so many ways my writing is better and I am happier because of my writing community.

What does this look like in real terms?

1) I have a small WhatsApp group with some writing friends. We check in with each other at the beginning and end of the week and share wins/loses/inspirations/magic whenever they occur. We spur each other on and hold space for tricky moments.

2) I meet weekly via Zoom with a dear writer friend to share where we are at and what’s happening in our writing lives. We have been doing this for around three years now. We are at similar stages in our careers and we have pulled each other out of rough patches and cheered loudly for each other’s successes. It is one of my absolutely favourite hours of the week, where I get to indulge in pure writer chat.

3) I have writer friends that I share work with (many are part of the above groups). They know my work and know where I am being lazy or could go deeper into an idea. Stories and chapters that I have workshopped with friends have become some of my best work.

For the longest time, I somehow thought that getting tips and advice from other writers was cheating. Now I see how much that limited me and my work. One of my absolute favourite paragraphs in my second novel came from a push from a writer friend, who saw an opportunity that I couldn’t see.

4) Recently, I did a 24-hour writing sprint with London Writers Salon, writing in a Zoom room with writers all over the world. I don’t join their daily hours as much as I used to back in pandemic days but working away on my novel for hours and hours surrounded by other writers was deeply nourishing, fun and invigorating.

And somethings I’d like to do more of

1) I’d love to collaborate on short stories with friends. This idea came to me after seeing this book Duets, from Scratch UK. The book is an anthology of stories each written by two people.

2) I’d love to build more in-person writing spaces in the coming year. Online is fabulous and in-person opens up other fascinating spaces.

I’d love to hear about ways that you build community around your writing or ways you would like to. And if community feels lacking (I understand, I’ve been there) what tiny thing might you do today to nurture a creative community around you? Is there one person you can reach out to to plan a little call or a coffee to chat about writing?

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Giveaway Winner ✨

Thank you too all who entered the giveaway for a free mentoring call with me. I loved reading your favourite words and you helped add to my vocabulary- there were certainly a few words I’d never heard before!

But without further ado, the winner is….

✨✨✨ Archana Ambily ✨✨✨

I will be in touch and very much look forward to meeting with you, Archana.

Apologies to those who didn’t win this time but I hope to be able to do these giveaways periodically, so do keep an eye out.

And you can find out more about my mentoring offerings here.

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THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!

Writing this newsletter is an act of love and joy. I am committed to delving into the beautiful, the messy and the sublime that is this act of creating meaning through words. Ultimately, my goal is to remind you that you are Write As You Are.

You can support me and my newsletter by:

• Sharing it with someone else who might enjoy it/find it helpful

• Liking and commenting (the interaction means a lot and is so fun)

• Buying Me a Cuppa ☕

• Checking out my mentoring offerings

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Recommendations

A few books I enjoyed recently…

Orbital: This years Booker Prize winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey is set in a spacecraft. Normally that wouldn’t be my kind of book, but this short book makes you reflect deeply on life on earth and makes the reader zoom out. (It also helped me to zoom out while having a filling done the other week- imagining how tiny my tooth 🦷 was in the grand scheme of things :) I would have loved to dive deeper into the emotional lives of the astronauts but I still found this book profound.

Christmas meets Downton Abbey meets a Sausage Dog: Yep, that brilliant combo exists in the form of The Christmas Wishtastrophe, a middle grade joy of a book written by Cariad Lloyd (who, full disclosure is a dear friend of mine). I listened on audio book and Cariad, who is an actor and comedian, made it absolutely come alive. The writing is fabulous and the story is charming.

Magical Thinking: I’ve just finished The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion a book about her grief after losing her husband of 40 years. The prose is stark, laying the truth bare, a work about grief that leaves you desperate for life.

A Christmas Romance: I don’t read a ton of romance, but a few years back I read One Day in December by Josie Silver and I loved it. It went beyond ‘tropes’ and really delved into more complex feeling. I have just bought her latest, A Winter in New York for a little Christmas reading treat.