Lessons I’ve Learned from IWSG

Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Insecure Writers’ Support Group, a blog hop created by Alex J. Cavanaugh and co-hosted this month by Kate Larkinsdale, SE White, Olga Godim, Natalie Aguirre, and J.S. Pailly (that’s me!).  Are you a writer?  Do you feel insecure?  Well, then this is the support group for you.  Click here to learn more and to see a list of participating blogs.

Hello, friends!  This month’s meeting of the Insecure Writers’ Support Group is no ordinary meeting of the Insecure Writers’ Support Group.  This month marks the 15th anniversary of IWSG.  I’m not sure when I originally joined, but it must have been 2012 or 2013, which means I’ve been part of this group since almost the beginning.  With that in mind, I thought I’d share some of the lessons I’ve learned as part of this group.

How many words should you write each day?

Before joining IWSG, I thought writers produced X number of words per day.  The value of X might vary from writer to writer.  It might be 300 words for some, or 3000 for others.  The point is I thought every writer had a daily writing quota, and I thought being a writer meant meeting that quota each and every day without fail, no excuses, no exceptions.

But since joining IWSG, I’ve learned that it’s okay to have off days.  It’s okay to have off weeks, or off months, or even off years.  I’ve watched some of you publish multiple books in a year, then go though prolonged dry spells before coming back stronger than ever.  Creativity ebbs and flows.  You don’t have to be a writing machine cranking out words all the time to call yourself writer.

How lonely is your writing life?

Another thing I assumed before joining this group: writing is an inherently lonely activity.  You think up ideas by yourself.  You put words down on paper by yourself.  You read and edit your work by yourself.  I know some of you write in public spaces, like coffee shops, and I know some of you work closely with an editor or coauthor or whoever.  But at some point, you still have to retreat from the world in order to concentrate on writing, right?

But writing is not inherently lonely.  In fact, writing is inherently a form of communication.  Writing establishes an almost magical connection between the writer and the reader… or perhaps between the writer and many readers.  Writing helps build communities.  Communities like IWSG!

How many readers should your writing reach?

Many years ago, a fellow writer (someone I’m 95% sure I met through IWSG) told me that when you put your words out there, you never know how far they go.  I didn’t appreciate at the time how true that is.  Every once in a while, I’ll go introduce myself to someone in the scientific community (because I primarily write about science and space exploration) only to discover that the person I’m introducing myself to already knows who I am.  They’ve seen my blog.  They’ve read my writing.  They’ve gotten a chuckle from some of my art.

Obviously I can see visitor stats for my blog, but that doesn’t give me the full picture of who’s reading my stuff.  My words (and my art) go farther than I realize and reach more people than I’ll probably ever know.  So whatever stats or metrics you use to judge the size of your audience, just remember: your words reach more people than you realize.

I want to end with a special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for bringing us 15 years of IWSG.  By creating this group and by maintaining it for all these years, Alex has done more good for writers than I think he’ll ever know.  Thanks, Alex!

I don’t currently have any books for sale, but if you like the artwork in today’s post, please consider visiting my store on RedBubble.  Even if you don’t buy anything, just visiting and clicking the like button on my work helps me a lot (and, obviously, if you do decide to buy something, that helps me even more!).  Thank you, friends!