Meeting Writers Online and Offline
By Cindy
Clark
© 2006, Cindy Clark
So you've decided it's time for you to talk
with real live writers to get help with your work. You might not be able to
have a long conversation with published authors, but you will be able to
find writers who are just starting out, or have been writing for many years,
to talk with. Any person who is writing will be able to give you some
information, from how to start a novel to finishing it and so much more.
Joining up for National Novel Writing Month
(http://www.nanowrimo.org) is the
quickest way to meet people who can get you to start writing. If you have
been writing for a long time, and haven't met a group of writers before,
this is also a great chance for interaction.
The National Novel Writing Month site
consists of a forum, including boards broken down into states. These forums
can help you get in touch with many writers in your area. Most states have
many get-togethers during November. If you aren't sure about meeting people
you met on the Internet in person, make sure that you meet in a group. The
forum on the National Novel Writing Month site is a great place to arrange
this. Your local area might have a very large get-together. You'll be able
to meet a lot of writers at one time.
If this isn't what you are looking for, or
you can't make it to any of these meetings, you might try making contact
through one of the many instant messenger services that are available free
on the web. Many writing-related chat rooms can be found on the Internet, as
well. It might be daunting to enter a chat room where you know that there is
going to be a large group of chatters. You can wait until there are just a
few in the room, or just log in and see how the chat room works.
Getting in contact with other writers,
online or not, might be able to help push you over that next hurdle you've
come against in you're writing, from finding out how to word a sentence to
the easiest way to do research that you have no clue where to start. Even
making sure that something you are working on sounds right is easier when
you have contact with other writers. You might be looking for some quick
brainstorming help, and what better way than knowing some writers online to
bounce ideas off.
If you aren't a chatter, you can go to many
online writing sites and writing e-zines and find a wealth of information.
Most of all, find out what works for you as a writer, and decide what you
need to learn. You might find someone online or in person who knows
something about an aspect of writing that you've been struggling with. Even
looking around the forums at the National Novel Writing Month site can get
you in touch with a lot of information.
If you really want to meet writers in
person, the National Novel Writing Month site is a great start to finding
writing friends who are close by and who are just as interested in writing
as you. It is also great to find friends that are around the globe.
Have fun finding new friends, and make sure
that if they are helping that you help them with problems in their own
writing in return.
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