An Island

By Kelly Bridgewater

This blog post is basically written for future published authors, but don't be discouraged if you don't want to write, maybe you will learn something from this too.

As a writer, most of us are introverts.

We enjoy spending time with ourselves. Being a part of a crowd scares me. I don't like to make small, pointless talk. I like to stand or sit in a corner and listen. Watch facial expressions. Watch body movements. I don't liked to be hugged. (So please, don't hug me the first million times you see me!)

When I was a little girl, I enjoyed spending hours playing with my Barbies. I only played Barbies with one other person, and she was my best friend, Robin. We understood each other and could play for hours together. I enjoyed playing by myself in my yard. I enjoyed reading by myself. I found tons of ways to keep myself entertain while I was a little girl. My sister couldn't do that, and still can't, so she would always find ways to annoy me.

When I go to group gathering, I have my Kindle in my purse. I never leave home without it. With over 700 books ready to be read, I can choose any genre of book that I want to read for the moment. I know my husband has frown on me when I have pulled it out when we are invited to someone's else house. I didn't see a problem with it. I wasn't joining in on the conversation anyways, so why can't I spend time reading?

BUT . . .

As a writer, we live in the world of our creations. We spend hours, days, weeks, months, and maybe even years, sitting alone in our dark corners, playing God to our creations.

It is hard to come up with a way to include others in the creation process.

Yes, I know people that are apart of writing groups where they meet once a month or once every three months or even once every six months and brainstorm and critique each other's work.

What a dream to have that. (Come next week, and I'll talk specifically about writing groups.)

I enjoy the creative process and designing my own characters and watching them work for me, but I have a very hard time believing my writing is worth sending to anyone for being published. Even though that was my ultimate goal up until a year ago.

So the question I leave you with is:

How do you, as a writer, spend more time with fellow writers? Do you meet with a writing group? Do you spend time listening to published authors' advice?