Let’s face it, as wonderful as the process of writing is, writers are often lonely in the pursuit of their craft and their writing goals. It’s the nature of the job. For writers who have turned their craft into a profession, or are on their way to doing so, the computer is often their best, bright, electronic friend. Long periods of isolation are necessary and part of the job. The mind needs as much peace as possible in order to let your creativity run free, and to focus on the plot and narrative of your writing.
However, no matter how introverted you might be in nature, there will come a time when this way of life will bother you. This is why you often hear of writers going to coffee shops, parks, or remote workstations to do their work. Not because they necessarily want to meet new people, but because they want to feel the presence of others around them, and feed off of the productive environment. Heck, you can even find entire compilations on YouTube that mimic the noise of coffee shops, just to help people feel like they are part of an environment.
But you are not alone in your writing. Thousands of writers seek the same support and understanding that you do.
This is why it is a great idea to join a writing community, which has numerous benefits and will make you part of a global community of writers, who share advice and behind the scenes of their life as a writer. The biggest community for writers that you can join is the one on Twitter, with the hashtag #WritingCommunity. To help you better understand what it is and how it will benefit your creativity and your writer’s career, here are the top ten benefits of joining the #Writing Community!
1. Easy and Free to Join
It costs nothing to join the #WritingCommunity, and the only thing you need is a Twitter account! Simply log in to your author Twitter account and look for the Writing Community hashtag. You join the community by becoming an active member in it. Thousands of people are active on the same hashtag, so you will easily find writers to reach out to, become friends with, and easily join the latest conversations of the writing world. The hashtag is active 24/7 and is always packed with interesting topics, tips, and discussions from writers of all genres and niches. So, even if you are just starting out, there will be many other writers in the community who are at the same stage as you.
One of the main reasons why this community has been praised, and rightfully so, is because it is completely free to join. Many other communities online, which all claim to be the best place for writers to gather, require a monthly subscription as membership. We are not always able to add another expense to our budget (especially if we are yet to turn pro and have a family to take care of), which is why the #WritingCommunity is available to anyone in the world, for free.
2. Other Writers Will Motivate You On Your Journey
As a writer, you often experience bad days, both in your private life and in your writing one. We have writer’s block, days when life gets in the way and ruins our schedule, and even an overall sense of loss when we reach the mid-way point of our manuscript. During these moments when you are just about to give up, the #WritingCommunity will give you the support that is so crucial at that particular moment.
Many writers are very candid about the reality of being a writer. We are not all enjoying the sun on an exotic island somewhere (although kudos to those who are). The more frequent reality of a writer is typing away in a corner somewhere in your house and constantly being frustrated that the tea went cold before you had a chance to drink it. Luckily, other writers in the community will share a similar situation and joke about it, helping you to feel better. When you see that others are struggling with the same things as you are, you are more likely to be motivated to continue writing.
3. Stay Up to Date with the Latest News and Job Openings
This is crucial for every writer, regardless of where they are in the current staircase of their career goals. Instead of subscribing to an endless number of newsletters, the #WritingCommunity will keep you updated about everything you need to know when it comes to the profession of writing. Remember, other writers are not your competition, and the #WritingCommunity is renowned for being a welcoming place for everyone. This is why writers are happy to share the latest news and links with others, to ensure that everyone has their chance when an opportunity comes.
The most important news to be mindful of are submission deadlines, open calls for manuscript submissions, agents who are looking for queries, and upcoming job openings. If you are looking for any of these news, there is literally no better place to stay informed. Whenever a writer sees a piece of news, they will almost always retweet it for everyone else to see as well. You may think that this is unlikely, but remember that we don’t all have the same goals. ‘Writing’ is a very broad category, which is divided into many genres and niches, and we are not all looking for the same thing at the same time. Once again, other writers are not your competition, they are your support system.
4. Easily Network with Others
The more active you become in the #WritingCommunity, the more people you will interact with on almost a daily basis. As a result, people will remember your name and will be more likely to reply to your tweets in the future. This is a great way to meet agents, representatives from publishing houses, editors, and potential employers. If you spend any time on the internet, you will notice that inexperienced writers are trying to market their books and make connections overnight. They do this by typing up a general message and sending it out to anyone who could possibly see it.
This is not how proper networking works. Agents, employers, and publishing houses want to get to know you. They want to understand your style of writing, your voice, and what you stand for in life. They certainly aren’t going to get all of this out of a general message that spams them and offers no real insights into who you are. Spend some time to truly invest in these relationships, to be a pillar of support for them when they need it, and you will see that it will pay off when the time comes that you need them most.
5. Find Beta Readers for Your Work
A beta reader is great for reading through your work and giving you an honest opinion of what they thought of it and how it made them feel. Sure, you could ask a friend or family member to beta read your work, but how honest would they be? Most people who know you don’t want to hurt your feelings with their honest comments. So, instead of helping you as beta readers, they may actually give you a false sense of security about your work.
This is where the #WritingCommunity is super helpful! There are hundreds of beta readers available, and almost all of them will volunteer to read your work for free. Most of them do this because they love reading other people’s stories. And, because they are probably writers themselves, they know how important this step is. Don’t forget to give your beta reader a shout out on Twitter!
6. Query the Right People
When the time comes for you to find the right agents to query your work, you will notice that the task will become nearly impossible to wrap your mind around. There are thousands of agents out there, and each one has their own preference of genre, length, and rules for submission. These agents receive hundreds of submissions, many of which they don’t even have time to go through. By being active in the writing community, not only will you be the first to know when an agent becomes open for submissions, but you will also know enough about the agent submit right away.
To help you along the way, create your own Twitter list, where you will collect the agents that you are interested in submitting to. As you get to know them individually, you will quickly notice whether or not they would be the right fit for your manuscript. You don’t just want to find a random person to represent you. You want to find an agent who will genuinely be excited for your project and who will dedicate their time to help your manuscript find its way to publication and the right audience.
7. Market Your Book to People Who Actually Want to Read It
Among the many amazing people who are part of the #WritingCommunity, you will also find people who are looking for their next read. This community prides itself on the ability to match a writer with their perfect reader, simply by allowing both to openly talk about the things they are passionate to read and write about.
To make the most of this opportunity, add a second hashtag with the genre or niche that your writing belongs to. By doing this, you will ensure that your story will reach the people who are looking for the same thing to read. And, you don’t even need to only rely on your own tweets for this. Take some time to browse the hashtags with your own genre, and if you notice someone who is looking for their next book to read, politely add a link to your book in the reply along with a short sentence as a summary. Readers love book recommendations!
8. #FF – Follow Friday
Fridays are an important tradition in the writing community. Every Friday, the hashtag #FF trends worldwide. Although it trends in many different communities, by simply adding #WritingCommunity to the search, you will see which users are looking for new profiles to follow. Likewise, many writers also participate in #FF by adding ten (or sometimes even more) writers to their #FF tweet, so that their own followers can see them. How kind is that?
The best way to make the most of Follow Friday, other than by finding new people to follow, is to contribute a short amount of your own time to showcase the work of others. Choose your own set or people who you’d like to give a shoutout to on a Friday and add them to a special #FF tweet. Every mention means a lot to people, and they will also be likely to remember you when the next Friday comes along.
9. Set Goals Together and Achieve Them
One of the many fun things that members of the writing community like to do is to set goals together and motivate each other to achieve these goals. This could be a word count goal for the day, coming up with new ideas, or perhaps the number of agents to reach out to in a day. When you have a group of people who are working towards the same goal of the day, you will certainly find the goal much easier to accomplish.
Likewise, you are also always welcome to create your own goals for community members and to encourage other people to achieve them, too. Remember, whenever possible, motivate other members of the #WritingCommunity the same way that you want them to motivate you. Once your name becomes more frequent in their memory, among the many other users, you will notice that they will quickly return the favor whenever they can.
10. Connect with Your Own Tribe
Perhaps one of the biggest strengths of the #WritingCommunity is the fact that you will eventually develop your own tribe within the community. As you get to know more and more people, you will notice that people tend to group together around a mutual tweet or topic. This usually includes a long Twitter conversation of about ten people or more, which helps everyone involved to get to know each other.
As you become closer, you will also notice that the same people will tend to like, retweet, and comment on your tweets over and over again. Even though the writing community includes millions of people, we still enjoy the feeling of being part of a smaller tribe whenever possible. Sometimes, people are more likely to find mutual minds online than in real life.
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Still feeling a little lonely? Join the #WritingCommunity right now and become part of a supportive system of everyone who has anything to do with the business and art of writing.
