How to Find Your Writing Community

Writing is a solitary pursuit, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.

My writing corner, on a less-than-tidy day

After I moved back to the US from London, where my writing career began, I wrote in isolation for seven years, feeling the loss of my community like a missing piece of myself. I had no idea how to start over — I’d passively inherited my UK group from my master’s program, so I applied to an MFA program here in Washington to try to replicate that. I had no idea how I’d pay for it, so maybe it was lucky I never made it off the wait list.

In my shame at failing not only myself but my recommenders, I retreated even further inside myself, surfacing periodically to complain about my loneliness to the non-writers in my life. They were sympathetic, but they couldn’t meet my needs: I craved engagement with other writers, for accountability and inspiration and understanding.

Then the pandemic hit, and amidst the collective international trauma of Covid’s physical and economic threats was a pearl of opportunity for people like me, living outside of major metropolitan areas: everything was suddenly virtual. I started devouring online classes and webinars, and in April, when my husband sent me a tweet from Meredith Talusan announcing that she was starting a series of online workshops, I immediately signed up.