The Importance of Writing Communities by Steph Beth Nickel

 

Although writing is seen as a solitary pursuit … Although many writers would consider themselves introverts … Although there is much we can learn on our own …

Belonging to a writing community such as InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship benefits us in many ways.

Today, let’s touch on five of them.

Community

We were created for community. And a community of likeminded individuals facing the same challenges and victories? That’s priceless.

A writers’ community reassures you that you’re not alone. When you sit down and look at the blank page or blinking cursor, you can rest assured that you’re not the only one trying to get your thoughts sorted. You’re not the only one drawing a blank as to what to write. You’re not the only one questioning your choice of creative expression.

Plus, being part of a writers’ community gives you people with whom to celebrate victories others wouldn’t even recognize as such. When you share, “I pushed through and wrote 200 words today,” it may not mean much to those who don’t write, but to those who do … Those who don’t write may not understand your nervousness when you say, “I just clicked Publish on my first self-published novel,” but your fellow writers will offer words of encouragement and a virtual hand to hold. And when you sign with an agent after years of querying, you’ll hear the cheer go up from across the kilometres.

Community is important to all of us.

Collaboration

What better place to find a coauthor for your book, a cohost for your podcast, or a critique partner for your unpublished words than a community such as InScribe?

Belonging to the same writers’ organization gives you a point of contact, a reason to reach out and develop a friendship that may grow into a professional partnership … or a professional partnership that may develop into a lifelong friendship.

Confidence

You may be familiar with the term “imposter syndrome.” You may ask yourself, “Why on earth am I here, surrounded by all these experienced writers, editors, and publishers?” Being surrounded by those who have far more experience than you do can make you feel like an imposter.

But it may surprise you to discover that there are best-selling authors who suffer from imposter syndrome from time to time. When they release a new book, they may ask themselves, “What if it doesn’t do as well as my last book?” “What if I disappoint my readers?” “What if my best writing years are behind me?”

What we learn from our fellow writers and other professionals in a writing community can build our confidence to continue to pursue our writing goals and dreams even if we feel we’re on shaky ground.

Commitment

Belonging to InScribe, or a similar organization, gives you the opportunity to “give back.” You can make a commitment to write for the blog. (Both this and the professional InScribe blogs have openings.) There are many volunteers who serve on the executive. This is yet another way you can make a commitment to the organization and your fellow community members. Keep an eye on the FellowScript magazine for these and other opportunities.

Courage

You may find it odd that courage made the list, but belonging to a writers’ community can increase your bravery in many ways.

Your willingness to try new things, to make a commitment to the organization, will develop your confidence and courage to “put yourself out there.”

As you get to know other members of the community, you may very well come across people you’d like to work with and develop the courage to ask if they are interested in collaborating with you. (It’s best to start by working on a short-term project to see if you work well together and to address any potential problems before committing to writing a book together or cohosting a podcast.)

And imposter syndrome? Fellow community members can give you the courage to press on when you’re tempted to give up on your writing. Plus, you can do the same for others.

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s the importance of connecting with others, of being part of a community. And being part of a supportive writing community can help us get through 2021 and beyond.

What benefits have you found from being part of InScribe?

InScribe Inspiration by Dayna Mazzuca

Inscribe has long been an inspiration to me with its always-at-the-ready warm welcome for me, as a writer, but also as a person. I feel respected for who I am with this group of people, who seem to come from many different places/situations, but who hold in common a love for our Lord and a commitment to writing well. 

There’s a professionalism I trust about how people approach their work and seek to improve and hone their craft, but more importantly to me there’s a personable feeling to our gatherings, committee meetings and collective projects that makes me trust the ground I stand on. 

It’s so important to me to be able to trust the people I work with and seek to grow with; and I’ve found this in Inscribe, in spades, since the day I joined. I don’t quite remember when that was, which is why I don’t write fiction because details, settings and even dialogue never, ever stick in my brain. But I do remember the feeling I’ve gotten, consistently, over the years with the people who make up Inscribe. This is why I’m a poet and a thought-writer, because I’m aware of what’s happening below the surface, attuned to the spiritual atmosphere in a way. This is where I live and work. And this is why Inscribe has been such a gem for me, a truly inspiring space and place. 

I’ve found that the people who gravitate here and call it home are people seeking an authenticity in their faith and to develop a spiritual strength in their work. They are seeking to tell good stories. And I love that!

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Dayna Mazzuca is a writer, speaker and poet working from home in Sylvan Lake. Her formal background is in Philosophy, Journalism and Spiritual Formation. These topics tend to overlap in her writings on the spiritual journey, her eight books of poetry and her online work. Her most recent project is an online course called “The Power of Authentic Storytelling” and can be found on her new site – www.daynamazzuca.com.

SHAKEN by Pamela Mytroen

SHAKEN

 

In keeping with January's theme, I dedicate this piece to a member whose words in writing and in person embodied InScribe’s mission. She, like InScribe, continues to inspire me. 

 

For Bobbi:

 

Bobbi knew her place in a salt-shaker. While she may have been more comfortable hiding quietly, she surrendered her heart to Jesus, and allowed Him to shake her. 

     In her upside-down, unsettling       moments, she poured herself out in a generous pinch of thirst-creating, truth-preserving, hope-enhancing salt to her world. 

 

     Throughout membership and contest coordinating for InScribe, I leaned on Bobbi to answer scads of questions. Emails flew back and forth, mine often heavy with desperation, hers always brief with just a question or a little comment that clarified things. Between the cracks and crevices of numbers, graphs, and spreadsheets, Bobbi sprinkled the salt of encouragement. One of her last comments to me was , “One day at a time, Sweet Jesus.” She practiced that daily dependency on Jesus for everything from balancing the InScribe books to pacing herself through another hard-to-breathe day. With that little phrase, I knew her faith was still real, practical, and a light to me in the midst of deadlines. 

   

Salt is a tricky thing to get right. Too much and it’s revolting. Not enough and it disappoints, leaving flavours hidden. 

Thirst for Living Water

But Bobbi had a knack for seasoning her words with just the right amount. It made me long for more of her wisdom, her wit, and her grace. Just like salt creates thirst, so our words should be seasoned with faith, hope, and love, moving our readers to yearn for Living Water.

Bobbi’s words challenged the reader. She told stories simply and with an almost uncomfortable honesty. Salt can sting in an open wound, but also heals. If you’ve heard her podcasts based on “The Reluctant Care Giver”, or read her book by the same title, you would recall her unpredictable and somewhat chaotic journey with her mother as she tried to place her into assisted care. The way Bobbi tells it left me laughing and crying at the same time. She listened to God’s voice, at times turning her car around and for reasons unknown to her, driving to her mom's place. As a result of letting God lead the way in the puzzling maze of dementia, she was able to partner with her mom, and her nontraditional "method" resonated with many caregivers, professionals included. Her simple faith still challenges me to be radically obedient, like her.  

 

Salt also kills bacteria by sucking the life-water out of its environment. Before refrigeration, salt in abundance, not just a sprinkle, was required to preserve meats. Jesus called us the salt of the earth, (Matthew 5:13) possibly because it is our duty to preserve goodness in the dirt around us. While our eyes burn from the stench of hatred, greed, and injustice, we are called to prevent moral decay by packing a lavish portion of His life-giving, healing words around the muscles and tendons of those with tender faith. Perhaps He expects us to share such savoury words that they "suck the life out of" society's slimy salmonella-infused lies, and cure carnal rawness with pure Spirit. Bobbi wrote essays for our Fall contest. Her words challenged deceptive norms, and confronted ideas that threaten the value and dignity of human life. She wrapped salty truth around every paragraph of every piece, and injected a briny veracity into her books and presentations. She helped preserve the standards for which InScribe stands.  

 

The humble salt-shaker - in a myriad of shapes and colours - brings us all together at the table as we lean in and seek salt, or some variation of it. We as blood-bought believers are that salt. We are all diverse, viewing life through our own upbringing and culture, and even interpreting current laws differently, but Jesus' forgiveness and His call on our lives pulls us together into the cozy confine of the shaker. Bobbi, with her grace-seasoned spirit, often stepped out of coziness to share tidbits of truth. 

 

Our InScribe family, and no doubt Bobbi’s more intimate circle of her own family, are missing her these days. We are tasting the salt in our tears. May that be a reminder to learn from her, and to be willing to be shaken. Shaken right out of our comfortable shaker. 

May we, like Bobbi, sprinkle a little truth into everything we write, to create thirst for the eternal Spring. 

Like her, let us flavour our stories with a daring dash of hope. And let us pack a briny brightness into every sentence of every story to nudge our readers as they take one more step  - "one more day at a time, Sweet Jesus" - across the gulf of darkness and into the Light.  

 “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6 NIV). 

 

 

    

 

 

  

 

 

Opportunity: What Inscribe Writers Mean to Me by Bob Jones

Opportunity. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of how Inscribe Writers are a source of inspiration. I recall all the opportunities given to me by Inscribe.

The opportunity to discover my tribe. Sheila Webster was the first Inscriber I met and it was a Godwink moment. Monday October 26, 2015. That meeting changed my life. I took the picture because I understood the importance of this new beginning. The location was a Starbucks in North Edmonton on 127^th Street and 136^th Ave. It was a meeting that almost didn't happen.

 

Ruth Thorogood, the Executive Director of the Word Guild, Sarah Ball, the Alberta Representative of the Word Guild and Sheila with Inscribe Writers came together over tea, hot chocolate and some lattes. I was new to writing and suddenly I felt like I found my tribe. 

 

Sheila worked with me to start an Inscribe writers group, along with Charity Mongrain who serves on the Inscribe Executive. Sarah, and Ruth became friends and colleagues. I wrote an endorsement for Sarah’s book, Fearless in 21 Days, and Ruth wrote an endorsement for my book, You’re Going To Be OK.

 Sheila would introduce me to Tracy Krauss and as they say, the rest is history. 

 The opportunity to write. There’s nothing like other writers acknowledging your writing to feel like you have something valuable to offer. In December 2017, Tracy’s invite to join this blog gave me the opportunity to read the writing of others as well as make my own contributions. And I learned that there were other male writers in this tribe, like Alan Anderson and Bruce Atchison. It's fulfilling reading and responding to each comment and posting my own comments on the other submissions.

 

In November 2015 I became a member of Inscribe and started receiving the quarterly versions of Fellowscript. The publication further enlarged my world, introducing me to writers like Pamela Mytroen – “every story needs a little salt”. Fellowscript offers very helpful skills to improve writing. When I was asked to write for Fellowscript I felt like I became fully fledged. Validated.

 

On December 26, 2016 I connected with Sally Meadows and Ruth Snyder in regards to the Inscribe Christmas Anthology and a new opportunity for collaboration. Early in 2021 the Easter Anthology will be available.

 

The opportunity to share and learn skills. Being invited to present a seminar on blogging at the Inscribe Conference in 2018 in Wetaskawin, introduced me to the rest of the Inscribe family. It was there I met Pat Gerbrandt, Joylene Bailey, and Bobbi Junior.

 On October 2, 2017 Bobbi was the special guest at our writer’s monthly meeting. She shared her journey into writing, her publishing experience and writing practices. Everybody fell in love with her generosity, spirit and joy of being a Christian who is a writer. Following up, she resourced us with invites to enter writing contests.

  

In February 2020 Bobbi, Ruth and I were working to bring Jeff Goins to Edmonton for a writers’ workshop. Jeff is an inspiration and icon of writing to me. I was amped up at the opportunity to meet him and learn more from him. COVID ended that plan but not before I had an hour long personal phone call with Jeff in preparation for the workshop.

Losing the sight in my right eye this year paled in significance to losing Bobbi Junior on November 30th. When I read her writing, I can hear her voice. Perhaps that's what makes writers immortal. Their words - and voice - live on after they are gone.

Thank you Inscribe Writers. You inspire me.

Bob Jones is a recovering perfectionist who collects Coca-Cola memorabilia and drinks iced tea. My walls are adorned with our sons’ framed football jerseys, and my bookshelves, with soul food. 

I write to grow hope, inspire people to be real, forge an authentic faith in Jesus, and discover their life purpose.

Please follow my writing at REVwords.com