How to Find Your People and Why It Matters

Being an author is often considered a lonely existence. But secluding yourself to write feverishly and drink yourself to angst-ridden death is now terribly out of fashion. The authors of today are a new breed. We have Facebook groups and accountability groups, and meet at book fairs, Clubhouse rooms, conferences, and writing retreats. At any time of the day or night, we can log on and find a group of authors writing together on any number of social platforms from Discord to Zoom. 

We’re all in this together.

You may have heard this before, but there really never has been a better time to be an author. Whether you’re a new author or have a traditionally published back-catalog as long as your Porsche, the thought of interacting with other writers can be intimidating. How do you ask questions when you don’t even know what you don’t know? Don’t worry, you might have questions that nobody else knows either. Find the answers together.

Cheers from your peers.

The right group of peers can have a positive effect on your career. It’s not as hard as you might imagine finding people who will stay with you while you bash the keyboard to get those last ten thousand words when your deadline is hours away. There’s nothing like the feeling of rallying a friend past the finish line at 3 a.m., then cheering with them as they submit their work to the editor, and, of course, drinking wine together when the manuscript comes back covered in red ink, looking like a frenzied crime scene. 

Find your community and be supportive of each other. Whether you’re drawn together because of genre, geographical location, or a mutual love of tie-dyed yoga pants, these are your people, and together you can share knowledge, grow in confidence, and build a stronger community of authors.