The value of writer gatherings

Today I’m off on my first writer retreat for two years, and I can’t wait to get there and start talking writing with my friends.

Writing is a solitary occupation, and sometimes I struggle with the fight when submitting work.  I know I should keep on sending stories out as soon as they’re rejected, but I really can’t raise the energy to do that.

This is partly weariness about being rejected, but it’s also partly due to an attack of Imposter Syndrome.  It goes like this: ‘How do I know I can really write when I can’t sell a single piece of my writing?  Am I just fooling myself that I really can write?’

This is where gathering with other writers really has value.  When writers get talking we talk about our publishing struggles.  We discover that our friends are feeling the same reactions to rejections as we are.  We discover that everyone else is being rejected just as much as we are.

We can also collect compliments about our writing from others.When we’re struggling with our writer self-esteem, being told we’re a good writer by someone who is qualified to make that judgement means a lot to us.

Writer gatherings on Twitter also have immense value. It was through seeing other writers post their submissions statistics that I learned just how many stories you have to fling out into the void in order to have any chance of having anything bought.

The negative converse of that is the posts from editors, informing me of the hundreds of submissions they’ve received, and the less than a dozen stories they bought from them.

It’s at times like that I need my in real life writer friends most.  Even if we only sit around with a glass of wine and moan about the number of rejections we’ve had, it somehow makes things better for a little while.

So I’m really enjoying the prospect of spending a week just writing with friends, and talking writer things.  There won’t be any submissions work done during that week.  There will only be writing, and talking about writing.