Q&A: How Important is Community?
If writing is a solitary effort, how important are relationships with other writers?
Hi Everlastings, time for another Q&A. This one comes after I published the piece about my mysterious Colony friend. I’ve been thinking about my own need to be in the company of other writers as I worked my way through to the writer I am now. Could I have done better on my own, without the support or influence of others in my field who had been there and who understood my anxieties because they were theirs, too? I don’t think so. Did it make it easier to know I wasn’t alone? It did. No doubt.
What about our need to celebrate even our smallest triumphs? We constantly need validation, and where better to get it than in a community of our peers? Can a writer—or any artist—live in a vacuum and be as creative? All literature says ‘no’. As in any trade or craft, as we work we need to be part of a group, a community, not just for validation but for inspiration. Good writing inspires us. Good writing from people we know, even peripherally, inspires us even more.
But when does it become too much? I ask this because I’ve been immersed, already too much, in the goings-on at Substack’s newest venture, Notes. I can see how it can become the thing that threatens to replace actual seat-of-the-pants, quiet-space writing. For me, anyway.
It’s friendly and comfortable and inspirational and fun. We’re introducing ourselves, each of us putting our best foot forward, wanting everyone to see us, to subscribe and maybe even pay to read us. In that sense, it threatens to become a competition, even while it works hard not to be. When writers get together it’s natural to feel the need to compete.
I’m being honest here. A healthy ego is a must if you’re going to write to publish. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to want to rise above. As kindly as we might feel toward other writers, and I think we all do, we’re always going to want to be the one to succeed. It’s a necessary part of what drives us. All our hard work becomes worthwhile when we remember that our goal is to succeed. Maybe not always monetarily, but in other ways: we want to be seen, we want to be read, and we want to know we’re getting there.
My own need for community is often a kind of an ache. I need this. I need you. I need the writers who write on Substack and are now bringing their writing to Notes. I need to put myself out there. But I also need to pull myself away to go off and write. I already feel distracted.
How are you handling all of this? Much better than I am, no doubt, so let’s talk about it. Comments, as always, are open.
Oh, this is so of this moment. I arrived in Substack at the start of this year and had no more ambition than to build a body of work (albeit one that might be useful to my agent as my book is on submission here in the UK). However, I've since found the goalposts shifting, as you describe so well, with the arrival of Notes. I'm hustling again. The pace has picked up again. The sense of competition (as well as inspiration and support) has made itself felt more keenly.
This has been positive, though, as I have clarified where I stand now between those two terms 'audience' and 'community'. We are here building our community of writer-peers with the hope that our community of readers grows with that. Not just within and among ourselves with content to push on Substack but with readers coming here just for the pleasure of reading.
I hope, like you do, I think to find balance. An ability to block out the noise of Notes (which, of course, offers instant gratification and distraction in equal measure!) in favour of the deep thinking and writing I came here for - as a writer AND as a reader.
Right now, I'm loving the connections I'm making with other writers. It isn't just about growing my audience (although that has happened some), but I haven't really been immersed in a community of writers since I was in graduate school. While I wish it were in person, the online community is better than nothing and it was also made me brave enough to reach out and work on finding actually community here in Indy. This is is a really good and important conversation for many of us to have, and I'm glad that you're starting it.