Why It's Important To Hang Out With Writers
/I miss my writing friends. These are the people who, like me, find it fun to sit around a table at a coffee shop for hours on end discussing plot, dialogue, and the newest crap out on the market and various theories on how this junk came to be published when no one will look at our obviously superior novels? (We writers are an egotistical bunch.)
But I've discovered that more than missing them, I need my writer friends. I need, on a regular basis, to surround myself with people who share the same burdens and desires I do when it comes to writing. I need to laugh with them about all the excuses we give ourselves for not writing. I need to hold myself accountable to them to be working on a project. I need to hold them accountable to me to show that they're doing work. I need to meet with them on a regular basis, weekly, to remind myself that "This is what I do. I am a writer."
I had coffee with my [writer] friend Ed yesterday and came away feeling renewed and energized. I love writing, a not-so-small fact I seem to have forgotten. My friend Bernie, also a writer, chimed in on an earlier blog post and reminded me that my YA critique group is still there for me. I miss all of them as well. My friend Pam and I haven't gotten together in ages to write or even talk about writing. There's also Lisa, Thad, Rudy, Chris, Laine, Tom, Daniel, Golda, Kim... I need these people in my life. I need their energy and enthusiasm for writing in my life.
As always, balance. It's way too easy to meet with people and TALK about writing versus actually getting anything done. But it's become clear to me that I need to make time to hang out with those writer types in my life.
They are, after all, my people.
Cheers,
Dena