She Writes community

Making connections with other writers.  It’s why we go to conferences.  Take classes.  Join organizations like Mystery Writers of America or Sisters in Crime (to name two that I belong to!).  Form writing groups.  And although I’ve never been a big believer in the “virtual community,” I must admit, She Writes is starting to change my mind.

She Writes is a community for writers.  Mostly women, but men are not excluded.  After all, how much would women like it if there were a great community called He Writes that we couldn’t belong to?  It offers groups:  a group for stay-at-home moms who write; a group for funny women; a group for memoir writers; a group for bloggers; another for screenwriters.   Anyone can start a group.

She Writes also offers webinars and other educational resources to help women succeed with their writing, financially and otherwise.   The Forum features discussion threads addressing topics of interest.  And while anyone may blog on She Writes (I have a page there, as I see many others do, as well), there are also several featured blogs.

I’m still getting used to She Writes, dipping my toes in.  I’ve started posting my literary lunchbox blogposts on She Writes, with a link back to this page.  I peruse the discussion threads and add my two cents where I can be helpful or have an opinion.  I read others’ posts and blogs, looking into groups where I might find a closer community.  Small groups – like the Book Reviewers Corner, with four people – make me a little sad.  There’s no Mystery Writing group. Perhaps I should start one?

She Writes’ latest activity runs down the right hand side of the page; I noticed that all the posts were by one person.  How desperate must she be, I wondered?  Then I looked her up and she’s a community manager for She Writes.  She posted a number of “welcome to She Writes” comments to folks who just joined.  This tells me something about myself – I’m the one who doesn’t want to be seen as desperate!

At any rate, with more time and more familiarity, perhaps I’ll start to make connections with the actual people behind the words on She Writes.  For a number of blogs I follow, I do feel as if I know them, even if they don’t know me.  The magic behind She Writes is the opportunity for that experience to run both ways.