Author Support from Other Writers: A Writing Win

Your Best Writing Support

You don’t need to go it alone as a writer. Other writers understand your process. While you may struggle to explain to friends, a spouse, relatives, or co-workers, other writers understand your struggles, help you through your shortcomings, refer editors and agents, a new way to approach character development, and just about anything you want to talk about in your writing life.

Because other writers understand, you can go deep in your conversation—not just about your current story, but about the specifics of writing, finding readers, what to put in your newsletter, and how to approach an agent. 

If that writer doesn’t have an answer, they may know someone who does. You’ve instantly expanded your network.

Fellow writers provide a rich source of knowledge. You can use this knowledge to expand yours. From writing groups to indie author idea exchanges, you can build your personal knowledge base on writing and publishing skills.

Ways to Find Other Writers 

There are many ways to gather invaluable knowledge for other writers and authors.

• Join a critique group – before you self-edit and then send your manuscript to an editor, your critique group will help you find your blind spots from punctuation, spelling, typos, and grammar to plot holes.
• Join a local writing group – this may cost you a few dollars a year, but you will meet a wider circle of writers and authors and have the opportunity to attend group events where you can expand your knowledge even more.
• Join an online group – expand your knowledge globally by exchanging ideas with fellow writers. Social media like Facebook has groups and communities where you can exchange ideas, get reviews of courses and paid advertising opportunities, and even get feedback on book cover ideas.
• Join a professional writers organization – a good choice is one that is genre specific.
• Join forums where authors discuss details of publishing and marketing.
• Attend conferences – meet writers, agents, publishers and learn from experienced authors. If you are working with a limited budget, find one that is close, reducing air travel, stay with a friend to reduce hotel costs. Remember that much of the great conversation and discussion happens outside of the formal presentations. Socialize.
• Find a writing partner from within these groups. 

By the time you have expanded your circle of writing and author friends, you will know more about how to improve your own writing, where best to spend your writing budget, and you will discover tips and resources you would not have imagined if you had not connected with other writers.

Keep in mind the writers are not graphic designers. Or get suggestions on cover designers familiar with your genre. Get tips on what works and doesn’t work with Facebook fan pages, Amazon marketing, Facebook marketing, genre-specific book descriptions, or just dealing with Amazon and other book retailers.

Your Writing Partner

While you can learn much from groups, forming a connection with another writer is a priceless connection that can grow into friendship.

1. Check in on a daily basis via email. These are quick 5-minute or less check-ins.  Someone to ask what you are up to. Emails are better than phone calls because phone calls too easily spiral out of five-minute territory into half-an-hour-or-longer territory. That’s not what you want on a daily basis.

2. Weekly check-ins. If daily seems too much to handle. Aim for a 30-minute or one-hour weekly check-in. Use either phone or video chat. 

2. Learn about apps or writing technology. This knowledge helps with platform-building and promotion.

3. Read your questionable passages. You want to know how a passage sounds to someone else. Your partner will give you constructive feedback. Having a friend out there to answer a quick question is invaluable.

4. Remind you that you love writing. When your story isn’t working, or you get a one-star review, it’s easy to get knocked off center. Your partner will remind you how much writing means to you.

5. Balance your emotional swings. When you feel down, your partner will remind you of your “up” time…perhaps just last week. This partnership is a mutual writing self-esteem boost.

Keep Meeting Other Writers

The benefits of connecting with other writers are manifold. You’ll find offhand remarks that change your thinking and tips that refine your writing, your publishing skills, and your professionalism.

Ready to focus on your first mystery? Write A Killer Mystery is the course for you. Go from story idea to The End. 

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: