Everyone should write. There, I’ve said it. Writing is so liberating and cathartic. It allows you to explore your thoughts and feelings, as well as those of others. With it you can imagine the future, and delve into the trenches of the past. Writing can be an escape, it allows you to create insightful or expressive art, and it can incite connection with others, if you choose to share your words.
We read for many of the same reasons. To delve into the ideas and experiences of others, to walk in someone else’s shoes. To escape into imaginative worlds or explore the real world around us from a different perspective. Many writers, including myself, create reading guides and book club discussion points for our major works to encourage readers to get together and talk about what they’ve read, because stories make the world go around.
So why not help the world spin a little smoother, and put together your own book club or writing group?
Back in 2009, I founded my own local writing group, the Northern Beaches Writers’ Group, because I wanted to seek out my tribe – writers who would be as intent as I was about publishing works for a wide audience. There were other established writers’ groups nearby, but they didn’t offer the level of critiquing and editorial support I knew preceded professional publication. So I put an invitation in a few newsletters and community notice boards. All these years later, I’m still running the group, every month, because writers will always need critiquing and editorial support before professional publication!
But that wasn’t the first writing group I founded. When I was 16, I set one up at my high school. It had a more inspirational purpose. We still edited and critiqued each others’ work, but our focus was on celebrating and encouraging a wide variety of creative writing – poetry, prose, film, even song lyrics! We discussed works like a book club, we found inspiration in themes I set the group to extend our creativity and passion, and we would create. Some then sought to share their creations with the group, or even the school via a noticeboard I organised. Others preferred to write just for themselves, for the joy of it.
Here’s a report published in my school magazine, summarising our first year:
Reading this report now, I’m so impressed that younger-me brought so many people together to celebrate words and to create. I remember being 16 and trying to find the time to write, scribbling notes in class when inspiration hit, then sitting in the playground at break time or lunch with my pen and paper to expand on my thoughts. The concrete was cold and hard. Being England, I often had to huff on my fingertips to keep them warm. What writer wouldn’t want a cozy classroom in which to create over the occasional lunchtime? I remember thinking there must be others like me, and we’d surely all like to meet each other. So I got permission from my teachers to occupy a classroom, then put an invitation up on the school noticeboard.
It was as simple as that – and could be for you too!
Before I knew it, I had my tribe, and together we thrived. Here’s my report on the group’s second year…
Not everyone who came to my school Writers’ Society would become a professional writer. Just as not everyone who attends Northern Beaches Writers’ Group meetings will become a professional writer. Making a living as a professional writer often involves thinking and feeling so deeply that you have no choice but to carve time out of your day to express yourself through the written word, prioritising writing over other pursuits and desires, employing self-discipline and often funds to develop your innate skill into craft, as well as your ability to be open with others.
But anyone can write. Whether it’s for themselves, for pleasure, for liberation of mind, heart and soul, for the joy of imagining other perspectives or relating experiences and knowledge.
So why not write something later today? Or even now? That thought or feeling you’ve been experiencing lately, why not express it in words and see where that takes you?
Or if writing isn’t for you, why not pick up a book that delves into the thoughts and feelings that resonate for you, and enjoy the exploration!
However you connect with words, why not also seek out others doing the same as you and connect with them? You’d be doing the world a favour, making it spin a little more smoothly, because stories make the world go around. It can be as simple as an invitation on a noticeboard.
