When writing with others, I think it’s important to make sure we are appreciating both aspects in our writing communities; our differences and our commonality
For most of us writers, we’re all doing our own thing, writing our own way, living our own individual writer’s life the best way we know how. We focus on our own genres. We have our own habits and routines and superstitions.
It’s funny, in my fantasy world we all understand each other and if we don’t, we patiently take time to understand each other. We laugh, we listen, we research to fill in the gaps. We find soul, or symbols or our own spiritualities in our words. In reality, that’s not how everyone writes. I used to amp myself up before a writing event to find out that my writing beliefs, writing habits, and writing behaviors are not in the majority.
At first, this was hard for me to understand. I didn’t understand that there was any other good reason to write outside of my beliefs. But over time I learned to listen to people to understand where they were. I stopped listening to find commonality. I wanted to learn to listen to the interesting details in their craft that may be different or outside of my own thought processes.
All of our writing journeys are different and that’s what’s important to remember when gathering with other writers. But I also think it’s important to appreciate that you’re battling the same blank page. Writer’s block doesn’t make you special, most writers get it. Writer’s flow doesn’t make you special, most if not all have experienced it. But, not all humans are writers, not all humans have battled writers block, and so that means not all humans have experienced writers flow. These are things that writers have in common.
That’s why I think it’s important to intentionally take time to appreciate both our commonality and our differences. It creates a feeling of connectedness as well as individuality. It makes for a rich writing experience. And what can be better than a life full of rich experiences?
Jayne.press 