Lesson 3: We Are A Village

It is true, being an author and working on our craft to write a piece, is basically a solitary endeavour…however, that is not to say we are completely alone...

I believe we are still part of a village, a community of fellow authors, editors, illustrators, designers, publishers, marketers, publicists, with several available mentors and teachers. Yes, even as we write alone, we are part of a wonderful village.

In today’s world, we have available, not only the traditional resources, such as reading materials and courses, with in-person classes, and libraries for research and information, but we have at our fingertips, the internet and Google, we have multiple social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to name a few, and we have platforms like Zoom and Teams with which to connect and interact. This is a time where there is no excuse to NOT be able to find what you need to succeed to write a piece.

I am a gal who loves to write. When I am buried in the magic of words and pulling them down to scribe stories or poems on my digital device (my preferred means now instead of pen and paper), I am in my bliss. Whether or not a particular piece is meant to be completed, edited, buffed up and polished to be sent out to the world is irrelevant, I am just so happy to be writing furiously in the quiet of my little home, getting my thoughts and words down. Often, it is only the sound of my fingers with the barely audible tapping on my iPad, or the sound of the dual ticking clocks in my living room and kitchen that I hear, and I am honestly happy in those creative moments. However, when I need to know something, check something, research something, understand or learn something, I know I am just a ‘click’ away from finding out whatever it is I need to know in this digital world. How cool and how convenient is that?

‘The Time of COVID’ era taught me to roll my sleeves up and write, or roll my sleeves up and ‘click’ to find out what I needed for my pieces. I refer to ‘The Time of COVID’ as the time where I was essentially physically cut off from the world, (just like all of you), my social life events, my family visits, my meetings, even the meetings I liked to do with my writing coach and fellow authors where we would meet to learn, network and mingle. Along came Zoom, and abracadabra we were all visiting and connecting to learn and share again from the comfort of our homes.

During that time I got busy writing to cope with a physically empty world. As an ‘expressive writer’ a lot of my writing is simply a means, or method to use my words to express myself emotionally and mentally to deal with whatever is a challenge, and COVID arriving was certainly a challenge. What I also learned in this time was to ‘put on my big girl panties’ and be independent and to reach out to connect and learn. For me it was a very productive time in my writing world, I designed two websites, and started completing, editing and publishing several books that were in the works in one stage or another. Many are available as eBooks on Amazon today, (see MY BOOKSHELF page on this site). I also taught myself to digitally draw on my iPad so I could illustrate some of my own works, and that was a huge learning curve, I can tell you, but I did it.

In any event, I learned then how to reach out, mostly digitally, to connect and communicate within my writing community. I joined social media groups and writing communities. I searched the Internet and I watched YouTube videos.

The point is, that although writing is generally a solitary endeavour, it is not a completely solitary practice, as I am only a click away from finding or connecting with other people and resources to companion my writing efforts. I believe it is a mighty village we writers are fortunate to have, and so, if you wish to write to tell your story, or share your creative written accomplishments, just know you are never really alone, you, too, can tap into your village, you just have to reach out and find it, or drop me a line, and I will certainly offer suggestions to you where you can start...

Happy writing! Lise