Writing can be a lonely life; The Importance of Writing Buddies.

Me a year ago, a lonely writer.

Writing can be a lonely life; The Importance of Writing Buddies.

A year ago I was a lone-writer, writing at home, isolated from the world. Talking about my book and writing, to any and every ear available. I spent weeks glued to the computer, writing, and editing, morning, noon and night. And on the rare occasions I wasn’t at the PC, I was researching or plotting with pen and notepad in hand. I started to look like a member of a certain family from a certain popular series of Young Adults novels, where the main characters are pasty white with black rings around their eyes, and are pretty emotionless. Yes, writing can be a lonely life.

But then this changed. I joined a local writing group, AbingdonWriters. I had a terrifying first session where I had to audition by reading out my work (to people other than family) for the first time ever. I was accepted into the group, and joined properly last December (2010)

Well a year has flown by, and a lot has happened. I’ve met a fantastic group of local writers; some published, some aspiring, some embarking on self-publishing. The best thing is that it’s a community, and we support each other, negating the need to talk at every person I come in to contact with about my book. We meet twice monthly to critique sections of each other’s work, and on the whole, the advice is very welcome, good, and improves the manuscript.

The Children’s writers also started a subgroup - Abingdon Writers Children’s Sub-Group, or AWCSG (we need a new acronym for this; suggestions welcome.) The six of us took the critiquing to a new level, firstly by all joining SCBWI (Society of Children Book Writer and Illustrators) and helping each other prepare our submission for their bi-annual UndiscoveredVoices Competition. But also by critiquing the whole manuscripts, giving us much needed feedback on story arc, character development, and the novel’s as a the whole.  Plus helping each other with developing our pitches, writing synopsis’s and query letters.  We have all come along way, and one of us, JoWyton, actually is going to be in Undiscovered Voices 2012 anthology!

Also with us all joining the fabulous SCBWI, I’m now in contact with some fantastic new writing buddies over the net. Plus, SCBWI opens up countless opportunities, like meeting agents face to face at the AgentsParty in September. 

All in all what I’m saying is writing is fantastic, I love it, but it’s become a whole lot more fun now that I have writing friends. So, don’t be a lonely writer. Join a critique group and who knows where it will take you!

Some of my lovley writing buddies from Abingdon Writers.

And finally, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at Abingdon Writers for making me so welcome. And Special Thanks to GabbyAquilina for running it, and of course the children’s Sub-group; Chris Evett,Clare Fitzpatrick, Sue Shaw, Nicki Thornton, and Jo Wyton.

And also a Good Luck to all my writing buddies in 2012, but especially Jo Wyton with Undiscovered Voices 2012, and Mary Cavanagh with her newly published e-book  ‘Max MacCauley: All He Ever Wanted Was A Quiet Life’ and 'Angela' which is also coming out in 2012. Also good luck to Marissa De Luna with her book 'Goa Traffic'.