Writers live notoriously lonely lives. And maybe a few people make it really big and get to tour their published books, greeted by thousands of adoring fans. But even those folks still have to go back to their laptops/desktops/notebooks and sit down and write new things. All by themselves.
And yet we know that we need community. We need collaborators. We need encouragers. And for those of us who are not (yet) published, we need people around us to give us that voice of face to face encouragement, that little nudge to keep going. Much of this can happen in relationships with agents and editors.
But I am not there yet. I hope to be someday. In the meantime, I have SCBWI.
This is the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. They can be found at www.scbwi.org
I stumbled across them while living in Germany. I found a critique group because of them. Then, when I moved to Portland, Oregon, I found another. I started going to mini-workshops and conferences.
There were maybe two dozen people at my first workshop in Stuttgart--I had no idea what it would be like. I didn't know any of the publishing terms. I wouldn't share anything out loud. And still, these lovely people welcomed me--at least they let me eat lunch with them and ask dozens of questions.
In the next and the next and the next, I learned more publishing terms and protocols. I started to learn how to hone my craft. I am still learning, and at each event I can squeeze in--which are admittedly few and far between--I take away one more small nugget of insight or encouragement.
At one of these, a newly published author encouraged us all that if we weren't published, it was a matter of "Not Yet" not an issue of "Not Ever". It had taken her two decades to get that first book out in the world. "Yet" became the watchword for the weekend. And I have been hanging on to it since.
Thank you to all of the people I have met through SCBWI--for your encouragement and enthusiasm and for making me a name tag that reads "writer".
