Why Writers Need Writer Friends (how I found my writing community).

         When I was eleven I remember looking up YouTube videos that had tips for writers, and I remember watching one of them, where the lady in it went on and on about having a writing community and how crucial it was to a writer's growth. At the time I recall feeling distraught, because I didn't have a writer community like the lady said I needed.

          At the time I only knew one other person who was as passionate about writing as I was, and that was my friend, Elena, who I never really saw at the time.

         And so began my search for fellow lovers of words. At the time I went to this tiny co-op (we only had like four families counting mine), and there was only one other kid that wrote anything outside of school at all, but it so happened that he was the only kid I didn't get along with! (Also I remember reading some of his stories, and he kinda just re-wrote Redwall at the time, and I didn't like that series, so...) Luckily, my mom moved us to another co-op that we had been going to part time, and now we went to it full time, so I began to look for writers there.

        I guess you could say I didn't really fit in at my co-op.

       Other girls wanted to talk about guys and dresses, I wanted to talk about plot-lines and plot-twists, or spiders, give or take.

          I did, however, find some girls who wrote short stories when they, and I quote, “didn't have anything better to do” (one of the most irritating phrases for a writer to hear from the lips of non-writers), and I did edit them for those girls, but they were hardly labeled my “writer friends”.

I remember one conversation with a girl…

Me: I have this awesome story idea!

Her: Oh, that's cool.

Me: Do you want to hear it-

Her: Sure, but first can we just talk about how cute (the most popular guy in my co-op at the time, who I always thought was gross), is?! *sigh*

Me: I, um, need to go to the bathroom…

           Yep. That was all I had at the time. One writer girl, surrounded by boy-crazy girls. Of course now, we actually have more people who enjoy writing (outside of school), at my co-op and it's been awesome, but at the time, nope.

          That really hurt my writing skills, but at the time there was nothing I could do. I had readers at my co-op, they would read my stories, but they never really critiqued my writing or asked important questions, other than, “when are you going to write another book?”.

           But this year I found a writing community! And you guessed it: here.

           Blogging has been AMAZING. I've met so many middle schoolers, teens, and adults on here that are passionate about writing, like me. I went from feeling like I was the odd one out, to realizing I wasn't alone… at all. I've had so many inspiring conversations with fellow writers and book dragons. I've had opportunities to alpha and beta read others works, which has improved not only their writing, but mine! I've also become less shy about sharing my works, which is always a plus.

        I guess, this post has turned into a “how blogging helped me” post, but that's okay, you can never have too many of those.

How has blogging helped you?

What is your story on finding a writing community??

Happy Writing,