Stop Writing Alone

IMG_4118Every writer wants to find their readers, but I believe you must find fellow writers first. Stop Writing Alone is here to help you find (or create) your writing community, so you can grow as a writer, and fine tune your work(s) in progress.

I started writing like nearly every other writer I know: alone, with paper and a pen, slowly graduating to a laptop sprinkling some words around the Internet. Poetry, stories, articles, essays, blog posts, guest posts, and even novel-length works all spilled out before me.

And then what?

I read my words, I re-read my words, and could not deny that they simply did not sing in the same way the words within the covers of the books on my shelves did.

I started to think it was me. I decided it was because I wasn’t a “real” writer. Then, while lurking around another writer chat on Twitter I was sure I couldn’t join, a real working writer presented the following paradigm-shifting idea to me:

Why do you call yourself an aspiring writer? If you write, you are a writer.

It was all the permission I needed. I joined a local writing group and a number of online writing groups. I told them all of the Twitter-permission I had been granted. I explained my newbie status and apologized for my naivety in all aspects of the craft. But I kept at it.

That is when the magic began to happen! Merely surrounding myself with other writers in a mutual aspiration to better our writing was enough to help my words sing.

This is what I want for you. I want you to embrace your role as a writer, and I want you to take your place within the writing community to challenge yourself, to learn how to give and take critique, to collaborate, and to share your writing with writers to polish it to its best form for your future readers.

I want you to Stop Writing Alone.

Think you might be interested? Here’s how you begin:

  1. Join the Stop Writing Alone Network. Introduce yourself to the group already assembled there. Let us know what you’re writing and what you are looking for in a writing community/partnership.
  2. Subscribe to the Stop Writing Alone Substack page to get updates and links to all of our community events and new episodes and videos delivered straight to your inbox. (Free subscription includes monthly events and podcast & YouTube updates. For $5/month you also get weekly goals and accountability posts, a membership in the new Story Club and extra VIP event invites every month)
  3. Are you a FB lover? Like our Stop Writing Alone! Facebook Page or — even better — JOIN our Facebook group Stop Writing Alone with Nicole Rivera and introduce your self there!
  4. Follow me on Instagram @stopwritingalone and Twitter @nv_rivera
  5. Sharpen your pencils, stretch your fingers, and charge your laptops — in other words, get ready to write!
  6. Start listening!

Writing Peer Letters for Better Critique Conversations – Stop Writing Alone

Episode 186: Writing Peer Letters for Better Critique Conversations Episode Description   Critique conversations can sometimes be complicated by the reader’s intention rather than serving the author of the piece being critiqued. This month, a small cohort of Stop Writing Alone members is trying out a new process for critique involving some tools like Writing Notes (discussed in episode 185), and Peer Letters, to help writing groups remain focused on the true purpose of critiquing each other’s writing: helping each writer to best bring their vision for their writing to life. In this episode, Nicole describes how she has used this tool in the Stop Writing Alone Critique Crew to serve the writers she is reading   COMPLETE SHOW NOTES:  https://stopwritingalone.substack.com/p/episode-186-writing-peer-letters#details
  1. Writing Peer Letters for Better Critique Conversations
  2. "Writing Notes" for Critique and Creation
  3. Is ChatGPT AI A Writer's Friend or Foe?
  4. Writing Fitness With Friends
  5. When Your Writing Sucks

11 thoughts on “Stop Writing Alone”

  1. I just entered this on FB. I write memoir, including personal essay pieces. I’m working on my first book entitled, Letters to my Son in Prison, Dear Lucas. I write 1-2 hours/day and am about two years into working on the craft.

    I’m not sure what I’m looking for but I think it is 1-2 fellow memoirists who would like another pair of eyes on their work. Because I want another pair on mine.

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  2. I’ve been writing family stories and general musings on my blog Stories Served Around The Table. Sometimes I think I am just blabbing into dead air. Writing is a lonely business.

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  4. Hey, My PenName is Akiré Rose, and I guess I’m a writer, and an aspiring published author.
    Im currently working on my first YA (low) Fantasy Novel. But I’ve written tons of fanfic and have lots of various unfinished ideas for books.
    I’m looking for someone(‘s) to help me along the road. Hear my ideas and make sure I don’t give up. Critique is also a plus. Friends who want to read my stuff but also will politely tell me that it’s trash.

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  5. Hey I am a budding writer and freelancer. I write stories at waatpad and also have started writing some professional writing for some research papers and contents. I am hoping to learn and create a great environment here.

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  6. Writing has returned my once silenced voice. I seek to write honestly revealing my vulnerable self in hopes to connect with others. https://thesoulwhispersblog.com uncovers pain and pleasure with imagery, befriends the natural world, finds meaning in mundane moments and playful memories. 🌳

    Looking forward to seeing the world through the lens of other writers.

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  7. Hi, everyone. My name is Christopher Granczynski. I thought that I had posted this to the comments last night but apparently not. I am a writer and a freelance proofreader and editor.

    I’m currently writing a collection of stories called 50 Ways To Dump The Donald. Hoping to have that out by Election Day, if not sooner. The goal right now is sometime around September 13th, that way it will be 50 days until Election Day and I can promote it as 50 Ways in 50 Days. I am also writing a collection called Lives. I’ve been writing this for quite a number of years, actually. It is about characters with strange names and interesting abilities and what they do with them. Finally, in current projects, I am writing what I’ve taken to calling Project Red. Without giving away too much, it takes place in the vampire genre and I am enjoying blowing up myths in this genre.

    I am looking for a sense of community within the community. When I edited and published crime and noir fiction at A Twist Of Noir (a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com), my own online “magazine”, I felt like I was part of something bigger than I was. I felt like those of us in the community pushed each other to do better and better fiction. It showed in my own writing and it showed in the submissions that I got from others. And I really love that about the writing community.

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  9. I am currently researching the history of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage through northern Spain on the Camino Frances route and writing background information. I originally planned to walk this last spring but delayed due to the covid. Now looking at late August 2021. Will follow up with a memoir detailing the experience. Until then I will be blogging periodically about the Camino and walking on my blog at https://www.johnseegers.com/blog. Constructive criticism is allowed in my blog comments.

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