Hello, welcome Wednesday! Now, I normally don’t post on Wednesdays (and no, don’t worry, I’m not going to continue to bombard your inbox), but I would love to share this wonderful guest post by none other than the founder of Writers’ Vision: Kaytlin Phillips! Give it a read, and leave a comment, because community is important, and that’s what we’re here for!

The Importance of Community

Kaytlin Phillips

Hey folks! My name is Kaytlin Phillips and I’m the founder of Writers’ Vision: A Christian Creative Community. When not over there you can find me on the blog I share with my sisters called Sisters Three or more often than not creating or getting lost in a made up world. So, that’s a little about me and now for my guest post which I’m excited to share!

— — —

I used to be under the impression that writing was a solo venture. One where you locked yourself away in your room for hours and typed away as fast as you could to complete that big project. That’s a lie.

You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that writing is not a solo mission. Writing is a community project. In fact, community is key to writing.

If you’ve not been writing for very long, you probably rolled your eyes. I know I would have to if you had told me that when I first started writing. See, I didn’t think I needed anyone else in order to write good stories. I thought I could do just fine on my own and that no one else would understand the struggles I was facing as a writer, so why bother?

Then two years passed, and I was struggling. My writing was horrible, my initial ‘I can do this’ attitude was gone, and all I had was a manuscript I felt a five-year-old could have written. I was ready to give up and throw in the towel, and I did for a time.

I stopped writing on my own projects. My sisters and I wrote together some, not as much as we used to, and I just read a lot of books.

Yes, I am writing now. Do you know what got me writing again?

If you said community, you would be correct!

My sisters and I met our dear friends Abbi and Saraina through an online fan club for The Green Ember Series by S. D. Smith. I got back into writing, talking to them about it, writing fanfics, and overall becoming involved with other writers. Having other writers telling me that what I’d written was good, having people waiting for that next fanfic chapter and being excited about it. I had a community of people who were backing me.

Then I learned about writing communities and searched for one to join only to come up empty (which is where the idea of Writers’ Vision first took root). I put off starting my own community for a year because I didn’t think anyone else would be interested. Didn’t think that anyone would want what I wanted…turns out I was wrong.

See, a community for writers isn’t just hanging out together. It’s growing, learning, and encouraging each other. A community for writers is a place where we can express our doubts and fears, hopes and dreams to people who understand. People who get it!

Community keep us from feeling alone, from throwing in the towel because we don’t think anyone cares. It keeps us from quitting. Only one percent of writers make it and do you know why? Because ninety nine percent quit. They think no one cares to read what they’ve written and they quit. They give in and that is why they fail.

I’m sure some of that percent is people who did try to publish and such for a while and then decided it was too hard. A community helps you remember why you started writing, why you write now. It’s a place to keep you grounded when those rejections build up or writers block hits or that friend doesn’t like your story.

Community is important because it’s a place to vent and place to be you. Whether that’s the crazy trying to keep it together writer, or the chill writer that just wishes someone understood what POV was…lol…

Community is something we were made for, something we crave, no matter how introverted we are. Community is important!

Thanks so much for reading guys! See you Friday! 😉

Louise Taylor