Writing is,
for the most part, a solitary avocation.
A writer needs, wants, even craves time alone to create. This can be a double-edged sword. Some writers squirrel themselves away like
hermits, not talking to anyone and not seeking contact with the outside
world. Other writers have outside world
overload and are forced to squeeze tiny segments of writing time between kids,
work, parents, school activities, and the chores of daily life. These mundane tasks can consume days, weeks,
months, and years like a ravenous black hole consumes planets. Those writers look back and wonder what
happened to all that time.
As human
beings, we need human contact. It
enriches our intellectual and emotional life, and it makes us better, more
rounded, happier individuals. A writer who
shuns outside contact, while he or she may write brilliantly, eventually falls
short of the human experiences needed to enrich the writer’s personal life and
work. A writer on life overload never
has time to slow down enough to process his or her experiences and translate
them into brilliant writing.
Is there a
happy medium? Probably not, but there
are coping mechanisms that writers can use to deal with either situation. I’ve spent some time over the last few years
trekking to downtown Cleveland, then to Lakewood, to attend the once-a-month
meeting of the Greater Cleveland Writers Meet-Up in Lakewood. I’ve never been a huge joiner of groups, and
often feel that I’m in that awkward stage between the “wanna-be” author and the
best-selling author. I don’t quite fit
in the retiree’s writing group, nor do I have time for the local critique
groups. I barely have time to do edits
and rewrites on my own stuff, much less edit and critique someone else’s work. At the Greater Cleveland Writers Meet-Up, I
found an incredibly diverse group of poets, screen writers, novelists,
journalists, article writers, bloggers, editors, illustrators, technical
writers, and self-publishers. The
meetings are lively, interesting, and provide both that human contact
perspective and the networking perspective needed to move forward, no matter
what your genre or associated specialty.
The writer’s
meet-up isn’t just for the hermit writer.
The overloaded writer who attends finds that many of the others they
meet there are fighting that same battle…finding enough quality time to
write. They share their ideas with
others who are struggling to find that blessed hour, or day, to sit undisturbed
and let the writing muse take over.
I would
highly recommend the Greater Cleveland Writers Meet-Up to any writer who needs
or wants contact with like-minded individuals, and who doesn't mind driving to Lakewood.
Dave Van Horn, who runs the GCWMU, is a great resource and has a
terrific and successful group of over 500 people who are somehow involved in
writing. These people are at all levels,
from thinking about it to multiply published.
This is what networking with other writers is all about.
That said,
the biggest obstacle for me is the commute.
I have no problem making a 50-minute commute in each direction in the
good weather months, but with all the other commitments I am juggling, making
that commute in the nasty weather…well it just isn’t worth the risk. The other thing is that I kept running into
writers in Lake County who balked at the thought of making that kind of commute
for a voluntary meeting. I can’t say
that I blame them.
After
considerable thought and much discussion with other Lake County writers (and
other “East of Clevelanders”), I took the plunge and created Water’s Edge Writers Meet-Up. We had our first
meeting on Wednesday at the Kirtland Public Library. We have 22 members so far, and nine people
came to the meeting on one of the worst weather days of the year. I thank them all for doing so. We had a good time, got to know each other a
little, and shared a lot of information and ideas. Feel free to join our merry band of writers! Eventually, I hope our brand new group will
be as successful as Dave and the GCWMU over in Lakewood.
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