Beast Bite 2: Building Community

Before finding a writing community, this whole business of sitting behind a screen was very lonely indeed. I tend to think of my life in a series of Befores and Afters, and one of the pivotal ones for me is Before Finding My Writing Community and After.

Both Courtney and I were lucky to land a spot in Adrienne Young’s Writing With the Soul Workshop, where we met, but there are many (many!) ways to build a community for yourself too, no matter where you are in your journey.

We recommend:

• following the #findmywritingcommunity hashtag on Instagram

• talking about being a writer! You’d be surprised how many secret writers there are out there, waiting for someone to whisper “I write”.

• Share tiny snippets of your work/process on social media. Invite people to reach out if it resonates with them.

• Attend local book fairs and readings in your local bookstores.

• Say hi to people whose work you love (I know it’s scary, but often, it leads to great conversations, and sometimes wonderful friendships).

• Come say hi to us at Y’allfest!

You’ll notice the main theme is having to put yourself out there, which can be terrifying for most people. All we can promise is that it is absolutely, definitely, worth it.