Monday, September 9, 2013

The Importance of Community





If you tuned in yesterday, you may have seen that my highlight of last week was when my favorite agent requested pages. I haven't heard anything yet, but I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you how I got this far as a writer. As I've mentioned before, I started writing my manuscript a year and a half ago. After six months of writing, I was ready to share my ideas with other writers. The only problem: I didn't know where to start. I spent a couple of weeks researching various writing communities before I stumbled on Figment. "Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors" (Figment, 2013).


Figment also offers a sneak peak of "Spotlight Books" from established authors. Members of this writing community (membership is free) are also able to create and join groups to meet other writers and to talk about what they love. Other exciting features offered to members include writing contests, several forums open for discussion of various topics, and members can sign up to receive a daily writing prompt to their email.

For me, being able to connect with and share my work, ideas, and progress with other writers was by far the most beneficial function of the Figment writing community. The support and encouragement from fellow writers was crucial while I was writing the first drafts of my manuscript. Finding a writing community or a group of writers, whether that is on or offline, is extremely important. Sharing your work with friends and family is fine, but no one will tell you the cold, hard truth and provide constructive criticism like other writers. If your goal is to improve as a writer, I would recommend finding a writing community.

What are your thoughts? Tell me in the comments!



Reference (because plagiarizing isn't cool)
Figment. (2013). Write yourself in. Retrieved from http://figment.com

2 comments:

  1. Figment's definitely a helpful site! I've enjoyed not only growing through other's feedback, but I feel like my ability to give advice has improved by learning from other opinions and suggestions. Community is sooo important--after working through my manuscript over and over, I've recently realized how invested I wanted to be in some form of critiquing community. You're definitely right about its benefits!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, Megan! The community aspect of Figment is wonderful, but it also facilitates learning and growth/improvment from receiving and giving feedback.

      Delete