Q&A: How Important is Community?

If writing is a solitary effort, how important are relationships with other writers?

Found at the website of the European Association for International Education. No attribution.

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.

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