Essential support

Writing can be a lonely pursuit, and our friends and families often don't understand why we must glue our backsides to a chair for hours on end and scribble in notebooks or tap away at laptop keys.  And often, our partners can be secretly jealous of our passion, and resentful of the time we take to use it.

If we're serious about making a career as a writer, we have to avoid being dragged down by these people.  We have to seek out kindred spirits who understand what it takes to be a writer, and will validate us as writers.  We need to find sources of support for our writing.

How many parents support a child's dream of making a living as a writer?  "Give it a go," is not often heard.  Instead, parents fearful that their child will "fail", try to persuade him or her away from such a risky course.  They're likely to be presented with a list of reasons why such a job choice isn't "sensible".  We get told we have no guarantee of success, and even if we do manage to get published we're not likely to earn enough money to live off.

I got steered that way myself as a young writer.  Although I've written since the age of twelve, and showed early promise at school as a writer, my parents steered me towards a "safe" job.  They were delighted when I chose to become a Solicitor (Attorney).  In their eyes, that assured me a comfortable future.

It might have done if I'd stayed in the profession, but the highly rule-bound ways words are used there, and the lack of creativity, stifled me.  I had become what Julia Cameron calls a "shadow artist", someone observing their true calling from the sidelines.  And I was stressed and miserable.  My body was telling me this was it right, but it was another twenty years before I fully embraced my calling.

I joined a local writer's circle, made writer friends, and met some best selling authors who were making a very nice living from writing,  I learned my craft there.  And I made friends who have been with me for over fifteen years now.  We've learned how to write publishable novels together. We've become essential support for each other, offering soothing words for each other at rejection time, critiquing each others' work, validating each other as writers.

Every writer needs sources of support, trusted people we can turn to when we've received a bruising  rejection.  We need people who'll remind us that yes, we can write, yes, our writing is good.  We need them to tell us to hang in there.  Essential support is necessary for the long climb to publication or we're tempted to give up when the going gets rough.