My daughter and I were chatting recently about writing.

She wanted to know about my various writers’ groups and the (one) writing seminar I attended.

I told her that I haven’t always wanted to be part of a writers’ group.

I enjoy writing in my little office, all by myself, head down, tapping away on my keyboard.

The trouble with that is eventually I need to come up for air.

Not only that, but what I write needs to be read by someone other than me.

Those of you who have had babies or who were caregivers for babies can understand the wow-factor in giving someone else your baby to hold for a while, allowing you to see your precious creation in a whole different light.

If you hold onto your baby 24 hours a day, you never get to see how wonderful they are from another perspective.

In other words, you need to take a step back to see the whole baby and not just the top of their head.

It’s the same with anything you produce.

You need to step away from it.

Let someone else have it for a while so you can see it from another perspective.

Of course, babies are always adorable—close up or far away.

But that’s not necessarily the case with manuscripts or artwork you’ve created.

There’s a great book that I would recommend called Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon.

It suggests ways to get your work noticed.

Sure you might get some negative feedback.

But you’re strong, right?

You’ll get stronger, too, when you put out your work.

And what a joy to find people who like what you’ve done.

We create to share.

We create to forge a link between ourselves and the world—to say, “Look there.

This is how I feel about things and I think you might agree.

If you do or you don’t, let’s have a conversation.”

I’m not saying you have to sell what you create. (See last week’s post about that.)

Certainly, you don’t even have to share what you create.

But if you don’t share, you’re not honoring yourself by giving others a chance to see things from your point of view.

Why hide in the shadows?

Put your babies out there.

That brings me to hanging out with like-minded creatives.

If you gather a group of people who do what you do, you can share your work with them.

Those people understand the process of creating something from nothing.

They might show up with a different point of view from you, but that’s a good thing.

You can accept their suggestions and make your project more well-rounded.

You can also reject their suggestions: with new perspective, perhaps you’ll see that your project says everything you need it to say already.

Groups are also good when you need a cheerleader.

“You can do this,” they’ll tell you.

“You’ve got this!”

Remember mom’s groups and how good it felt to be with other women who understood the struggles you were going through?

Women who could hold your baby for a bit to give you a break.

It’s eye-opening to see your baby (human or creative project) in someone else’s hands.

It’s scary, too.

But when you get that baby back, you’ll find that you’ve both grown a bit.

In the end, isn’t that what this is all about: Both you and your creation growing, changing, and becoming more of what you’re each supposed to be?

Here’s a list of websites and organizations (in no particular order) that I either currently belong to or have belonged to in the past.

If you don’t want to become a member of these groups, you can sometimes look at their blogs for no charge.

You’ll often find excellent free information.

• scbwi.org (this is THE organization for children’s book writers and illustrators)
• Suzanne Lieurance at Write by the Sea (She is a great mentor and coach)
• writeofpassage.com (fantastic interviews with authors)
• jerichowriters.com (all around helpful information)
• write-mentor.com
• journeytokidlit.com (lots of helpful advice for writing, especially picture books)
• storytelleracademy.com
• madelinesmoot.com (former editor and agent offering lots of writing advice)

Until next time,

~ Gail

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