Writers Need Community by Michelle Haseltine

Community gives me a place to belong. It’s where I feel comfortable to be myself and take risks and make mistakes. As a writer, a strong community strengthens my resolve and makes me better. On the days when I feel like giving up, my community is there to nudge me along with encouragement. On the days when I find success, they cheer me on and lift me up. Writing is a solitary act until you find your community.

For the longest time, I resisted community. I kept my writing secret and didn’t share it with many people. Somehow, it felt safer. I remember the first community I ever felt comfortable sharing my writing...my writing group at the Northern Virginia Writing Project. While I was part of the summer institute we all participated in writing groups that met every other day. I was scared. At first, I didn’t trust them. As I look back, I realize that I held them at arm’s length only sharing writing that I’d already shared. Their reactions were genuine, helpful and encouraging.  Soon they earned my trust and I dove in head first. That’s when things changed.

I will never forget the first time I received effective and powerful feedback from that group. There was a piece that I wanted to publish in our anthology, so it had to be good. My friend, Christine, worked together with me and shared her brilliant revision and editing suggestions. She listened. She heard what I was trying to write and she was able to help me find my way there. If I am a good writer today, I credit so much of that to Christine and her guidance. She gave me the confidence to stretch and grow as a writer.

Writing is solitary. Yes, that’s true. Writers must find their own voice in the silence. Writers must develop their own identity and as we say in my class, “writers are the boss of their own writing”. I believe writers and their writing grow stronger in a community. Writers flourish with the nourishment of their soul and that’s something only other writers can do for them.

Today, my communities include the NVWP, our TeachWrite Tribe, and my student writers. Each of these communities has helped me grow as a writer.

Michelle Haseltine spends her days with middle schoolers in Loudoun County, VA. Together they write, read, think, and create every single day. Michelle is a co-facilitator of our #TeachWrite twitter chat and a Teacher Consultant with the Northern Virginia Writing Project. She owns Selah Writing and blogs regularly at One Grateful Teacher and Your Story Matters. Michelle tweets regularly at @Mhaseltine and instagrams at @Mhaselti