'Way back in 2001 when I first started writing, the only other person I knew who wrote was a friend from college. We were both busy raising kids and living life, so we rarely talked about our work, especially since we were limited to regular mail, then email (note, this was a while ago!). Once I started working, I had to move rooms after about 5 years in the building, and the person on the other side of the wall was our ESL teacher. We got to talking, probably at lunch or before a meeting, and I learned that she wrote, too! That was about it for community, however. I worked alone, struggled through challenges alone, prepared my books for publication alone.
All that has now changed. I have more unscheduled time, having retired from full time teaching, and have joined a small writers' group here in our little town. They've been awesome, encouraging/prodding/figuratively kicking me in the behind me to branch out to BookTok, and we spend time in our meetings talking over the triumphs and frustrations of writing.
The other big change has been the community on BookTok. Every day I meet new people (kinda weird for this happy introvert) who are kind, helpful, and, most of all, they GET ME. haha! There's nothing more affirming than finding your tribe. In a certain sense it's like being in grad school again. I've been chatting with people from all over the world, both on BookTok and on the phone, and it's a huge boost. I used to teach French, and I understand well the struggle of getting people to understand what you're talking about. I suppose that's every writer's ultimate goal: comprehension on the other side of the page. Stephen King called it the most durable kind of magic. It's fantastic when the trick lands right.
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