The other day, I brought a family member to their therapy appointment. I shopped after dropping them off, and arrived back at the therapist with more than ten minutes to spare.
As the therapist and the family member (sorry for being cryptic but I don't want to give any clue as to who the family member was--and no it was not me, thanks for asking) came back out into the waiting room, they lined up another appointment. They were chitchatting--hadn't they just spent the last hour doing it!--while figuring out which day and time would work well, when the family member mentioned it was just nice to talk with someone about anything.
This got me thinking about the last writers group meeting I attended. All three of us were there, and after we finished our readings and critiques, we talked about how it was refreshing to converse with other writers. Writers are wired differently. There are struggles we encounter that, quite frankly, very few are able to identify with.
This could be said about most creative individuals. I'm not a painter or a sculptor or a graphic artist. The same could be said of them too.
It's important to identify that you, as a writer, are different. It's also okay to meet with other writers from time to time. This is not new. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien met regularly to discuss their writings in their Inklings meetings.
Find some like-minded writers and regularly meet. Trust me when I say it may take a while to find others who you click with--and us three really do! (As a note, please see my blog post from 4 years ago on how I talk about the good, the bad, and the weird with writers groups). Like therapy, it's nice to just talk with others who are either going through the same struggles as you or have gone through them and can coach you through them.
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