Writers need fellow writers

This is obvious. But sometimes the obvious needs to be said. (It's based on Darusha's nano podcast, for anyone wondering.) Writing is a very solitary thing, when all is said and done. You sit in a room, stare at a keyboard, and you type. Sometimes it's the Great Canadian Novel, sometimes it's only fit to line the bird cage -- either way, writers often need some kind of feedback, or an audience. This is because writers are needy - anyone would be in a hobby/profession that induces rampant paranoia.

So writing groups and forums are often a must. (I personally frequent sffmuse, largely because it's small, which gives it an awesome sense of community.) At the very least, each writer needs a circle of people who will critique poems, stories, and the like and provide honest and critical feedback. This is often hard to find, so you need people who aren't signifigant others, best friends, or whatever. So we need strangers who are as strange as us, united in the desire to write.

We need them to convince ourselves that we are really sane and that writing (as a hobby or otherwise) is worth the sometimes ludicrous effort required. And, by and large, they do that. Often because they want to be convinced of it in return, but still. Does it matter if the writer's circle is all published? Of course not. Not everyone wants to get published, and some people are downright afraid of it. ["It's the celebrity, man. All those hoards of adoring fans. They scare me."] Of course, some people will think that's a waste of time -- but the writer LIKES it. They have FUN doing it. And, just because those qualifications are met does not mean that you are somehow obligated to turn writing into a full time job.

So just write, and edit, and as a writing group evolves maybe more and more of those involved will encourage each other to step into the wild world of rejection slips and rampant editing. As long as it's still fun, go for it. If it stops being fun, re-evaluate it. That's what your forum/writing friends can help with, as you help them with the same. We might all be islands, but we can still build bridges.