Sep 17 2008
parties in the garret
Despite my recent post consigning all serious writers to freeze out their lonely occupations in garrets , I am a firm believer in community. Ultimately writing is NOT a solitary pursuit, because eventually your words (the better ones, anyway) will find their way to other people, and they will in some way influence those other people’s lives. So writing, really, is about community.
All this to say there is nothing wrong with throwing the occasional party in the garret. On Monday I was in Michigan visiting my cousin, and while she was occupied for two hours, I parked myself in a Starbucks to catch up on business email. Lo, a friend walked in while I was there — one who has recently taken up writing in a fairly serious way. She brought a manuscript with her and we sat and talked, and it was all very jolly and nice.
I love talking shop with people who actually care. My friend told me about her writer’s group that meets at Caribou Coffee once a month, and she invited me to come in October (since I’ll be performing again this month). I think I’m going to make the effort, international border or no, because community isn’t all that easy to come by when you’re a writer who spends all of her time in her room.
So, my recent and charming readers who comment, where do you get your writing community? Who do you talk shop with? And will you be my friend on Facebook? I recently started a group (Rachel’s Writing: Friends of Rachel Starr Thomson) and would love to drum up some community there :).
In related news: After a long search, I have FINALLY found a writing buddy to attend my first writer’s conference (in NYC!) with me. My dad :).
Hi Rachel,
I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival or not, but it is a blog I started to bring together blogging homeschooling families living in Canada. Recently I’ve expanded to include blogging Canadian homeschoolers that are living else where and even more recently I decided to include blogs of Canadian home school students and graduates. It is my understanding that you are a Canadian graduate of homeschooling and I would love to feature your blog in the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival. If you have any questions there is an email address on the blog that you can write to. Hope to hear from you soon and please help spread the word.
Rachel, I’m not sure if I’m one of your “recent and charming readers who comment,” but I want to say … you’re written another post that rings true for me, anyway! :)
Definitely, community IS important for writers. We all need to have garretts and spend lots of time in them, writing, but we need friends, too – to invade our garretts or drag us out of them … without conversation and laughter and community-goodness (in the shape of “Dutch Blitz” and much hilarity, for example!), writing doesn’t “work.” At least, that’s true for me – maybe because I write mainly about people in community – families, friendships, etc. My family is my community – oddly, we all write in one way or another. And I have some dear, patient, wonderful friends who also write one way or another – and we talk shop, too! Recently there were two of these rare and valuable friends who read my novel chapter-by-chapter. It was REAL commounity – whenever I finished editing a chapter, I emailed it to them and they emailed me back with questions and comments. It was great! :)
And Facebook is always fun, for writers, too … although it’s a little TOO easy to access from the garrett and thus distract the genius at work …
Elizabeth, you’re as charming as they get :). Your circle of writer friends and family sounds wonderful! Oh, and feel free to look me up on Facebook. Besides my personal account, I’ve got a writing-related group called “Rachel’s Writing: Friends of Rachel Starr Thomson.”
Ha, I already said that in my post. I should re-read my own writing sometimes ;).