Writing Family Matters

 

Fun fact: I’m third generation union. My grandfather was a miner and member of UMWA. A merchant sailor for 25 years, my father kept his book up to date with the SIU. With over 16-years employment across three state agencies, I’m a delegate and shop steward with TSEU.

 

No, you haven’t stumbled into a pro-labor LinkedIn page.

 

Whether it is trade unions or professional organizations, there is benefit in association. Medical professionals get together to share experiences and discuss emerging challenges and treatments. Accountants gather to build skills and trade best practices. Lawyers meet up to drink. Like, a lot.

 

Kidding. Mostly. The thing is, there is tremendous benefit in association with vocational fellows. But either from timidity, a lack of resources, or a lack of opportunity, writers often miss that bus.

"Graham Greene gave me his phone number, not that I would ever use it. I know what he wants. It's what we all want—to be left alone so we can write." Patricia Highsmith

 

Introversion is an occupational hazard. Even when the event is something I look forward to, people tax me. It’s one of too many reasons to cite that I no longer engage in critique groups. 

 

The benefit of writing conferences is more than just pitching agents or getting the skinny on the best query letter or even debating the Oxford Comma. Meeting and talking with fellow scribblers is invaluable in recharging creative batteries. Still, the admission fee to most writing conferences can still be a tough nut to crack. 

 

While groups of writers regularly gather around coffee shops in movies and television show—no, wait, that’s police and angsty young-adults. There simply isn’t much gathering of writers in the wild.

 

If only someone came up with a way to commune with other writers without paying a fee or travel far/wide. Well, as it happens, someone did. Several someones at Facebook, twitter, and Tumblr.

 

On social media you can meet with writers of all avenues of print. You can meet them all from the comfort of your home. Discuss plot? Pacing? Character arc? Without putting on pants? 

Absolutely!

 

I follow writers. I support other writers—horror, cozy, xian, erotica, space opera, horse opera—genre doesn’t matter. Only writing and support matters.

 

Please note: there are hustlers a-plenty, as well. They are BIG on building followers and pitch-posting but do little-to-no interacting with other writers. Pithy platitudes and self-promotion isn’t support. If they don’t interact with writers, if they don’t support writers, if all they do is sell—I don’t follow them.

You’ll know the real deal when you encounter them. I posted a piece on self-publishing. It was more plaintive novena than chest-thumping manifesto but a couple of days later I received a message from fellow scribbler, Michael Cook. 

Michael shared his self-publishing journey with me. He encouraged me to stay true to my vision. He supported a fellow book-brother. 

Mana from heaven is a cliché line but that blessing is also what words of encouragement are. Writers live for those words of encouragement, whether it be the triple-check mark/rough-drawn happy face in crit-notes or that first Amazon review or just another writer saying, “hang tough, you got this,” those words sustain us. 

You can make those connections on social media.

 

Jennifer Worrell and I met on the Insecure Writer’s Support Group Facebook page. We share a warped sense of humor as well as a love of whiskey and pie. She read my MS in full and gave me pointed critiques as well as soul-sustaining support. Jennifer remains a close sounding board and is friend enough to tell me when something I wrote doesn’t work.

 

I met Fiona Quinn on twitter something-something years ago. She has been inexhaustible in her counsel and support. Her enthusiasm and encouragement is one of the reasons I’m still writing. 

 

To have a friend, be a friend.

 

Reciprocity is cornerstone of creative fellowship. I promote my friends’ books. I read and review their books. I’m honest with them, at the risk of offending, if my opinion is solicited and I keep my yap shut otherwise.

 

Scribble siblings have to stick together. We have to sustain each other. After all, the same ink runs through our veins. 

 

The photo at the top is the Addams Family Values movie poster and is the property of Paramount Pictures. It is used here for illustrative/educational purposes as covered under the Fair Use Doctrine.