It’s been a while since I’ve really been active. My life got turned upside down in February when my husband got his new job and then we moved out to Denver, which had been a life-long dreams of ours but still represented a major change. We’re still living in the same motel room we were in when we got here. There are still so many pieces of the puzzle that aren’t in place. It’s been hard to get back into the swing of things.
Fortunately for me, I have friends all over the place and one of them pushed me to do something for her group and after going ahead and doing that for her, I realized that I had created something that would be helpful for my writers, too.
Community Encouragement
That nudge from community is an important thing. A strong community which encourages us and reminds us of our dream, which is there to help support us and to keep us on track when we go astray, is a key ingredient in becoming successful.
Sometimes I forget why I do the work I do. Sometimes I let myself believe that my writing doesn’t matter, that the work I do isn’t that important. Fortunately for me, when that happens – my friends are pretty quick to start nudging me. They push me to get back to the job I was born to do and to get back to work at writing.
It’s too easy, when we are writing in isolation, to tell ourselves that the work we do doesn’t really matter. Who cares if we finish our story? Nobody will know.
Until you belong to a community, and they remind you about that story you were in the middle of writing but that you’d abandoned. They ask you about it. They tell you what it meant to them. Suddenly, you’re reminded of why it matters that you do the work you do and you find the encouragement you need to get back to doing the work that only you can do.
That’s the value of a community. They’re there to help remind you why it matters that you do what you do and to encourage you to keep going.
Join a Community!
If you don’t have a writing community, join one. If one does not exist where you live, either start one or join our FREE Facebook community.
Be Part of a Community
Joining is the first step, but don’t just join. Get active and involved. Make yourself known. Let people get to know you and to see what you can do.