Welcome to the Worldwide Community of Writers

Almost every day, I hear from writers who are just beginning their journey. Maybe they’ve just started a novel or they’re working on their first short story. Sometimes they’ve been journaling or writing poetry for years and are finally starting to submit their work. Often, they’ve wanted to write for a long time. Hearing from them is one of the great joys of my life.

I always want to say many things to new writers. I want to congratulate them for their courage. I want to thank them for being willing to serve the world through writing. I want to caution them about the stumbling blocks and treacherous passages ahead—the things that might make them decide to stop in their tracks or turn back, wishing they’d never started. And I want to offer them encouragement because, no matter where their journey leads, it’s bound to be exciting!

But most of all, I want to welcome them to the community. Because that’s what writers are—members of a large, diverse, yet strangely united community. A community that stretches back in time to the first storytellers who enchanted their listeners around campfires under the stars. A community that reaches around the globe and lives, in one form or another, in every culture on Earth.

The word community comes from the Latin for “society,” “fellowship,” “courtesy” and “sharing,’ (Etymology Online). Writers form a community in the truest sense of the word. We are a society of people with desires, experiences, and dreams that non-writers do not have and seldom understand. We are a fellowship of people with a common set of goals, tools, and methods. We share a way of being the world that is unique.

Perhaps you have a personal writing community. Your writing group. Your writer friends. Your teachers. But I would like to encourage you as well to see yourself as part of a larger community. One that comprises everyone who writes, who is committed to writing, who lives life as a writer. That includes the writers you know, but also the writers you read. It includes writers living today, but also those who came before us.

Constantly keeping in mind that I belong to a larger community of writers has been enormously nourishing to me over the years. If you are new to writing, you will soon find—if you haven’t already—that nonwriters have trouble understanding what motivates you to do work with no guarantee of payment or success. They might be sympathetic when you feel down, but they generally can’t empathize with the level of frustration or grief we sometimes feel when our writing isn’t going well. They usually underestimate how tough the market is—but they also don’t realize the sheer joy you feel when a passage or verse comes out just right. They may be supportive, but sometimes their support comes in the form of suggestions like, “Have you ever thought of becoming a dental hygienist instead of a writer?”

If you want a deeper level of understanding, empathy, and support, you need another writer—someone who’s been through the ecstatic highs, the deadening disappointments, the drudgery, and the sheer fun of writing. But don’t despair—they’re there. An entire world of writers is all around you. Welcome to the community!