It's hard to create on an island

For a long time, my writing happened on an island.

Not literally, unfortunately. There were no palm trees involved.

I mean that I worked mostly by myself. Sure, I had clients, friends, and family I could talk to about my work, but what I didn't have was a circle of other professional writers.

Early in my career, I'd read books and blogs by writers who talked about the referrals they'd gotten from writer friends, the advice they'd exchanged, and the projects and opportunities that came from knowing other people in the industry.

It seemed like all the successful writers had a circle, I just didn’t know how to become part of one.

Where, exactly, does one acquire writer friends? Is there a club? A secret handshake? Do you just message someone on the internet and say, "Hello, I also have strong feelings about semicolons"?

Over the years, that changed. One connection led to another, and eventually I found myself surrounded by people who understood my work from the inside.

Because it's one thing to have someone care about your problems and your wins. It's another to have someone recognize the significance of them immediately.

I can tell another writer about a piece of client feedback and watch their face change before I've even finished the sentence.

I can admit that I've spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to fix six words.

I can gush about the peculiar satisfaction of writing a sentence so perfectly that I keep rereading it just to admire my own handiwork.

It’s not that my husband doesn’t care about my work. He's proud of my wins and sympathetic to my frustrations. But another writer feels the weight of those things differently because they've lived their own version.

Of course, having other writers in my life has all the practical benefits I once admired from afar, too.

We refer work to one another. We share resources. We collaborate. We answer questions and occasionally prevent one another from sending emails that should probably sit in drafts overnight.

My writer friends know why seemingly tiny things feel big. Why a six-word problem can consume an afternoon. Why the perfect sentence is absolutely worth celebrating.

They get it. They've been there.

And that makes the island a little less lonely.

Erin

P.S. I've been thinking a lot lately about how long it took me to find my creative circle and whether there’s a better way. I've got something brewing. Stay tuned!