Finding Support
Building Writing Communities
This week I’ve been inspired by an event I went to on Wednesday night, to celebrate thirty years of Spread the Word, a literature development agency based in London, soon to rebrand as the London Writers Centre. Founded by Booker prize winner Bernardine Evaristo and Ruth Borthwick, now chair of English PEN, the aim of the agency is to help London’s underrepresented writers develop their work and get it out into the world. Listening to those, like prize winning authors Diana Evans and Tice Cin, speak about how STW helped them, it struck me that so many of us writers who succeed seek help along the way. Getting support can be vital - it’s so easy to lose confidence and motivation in what is essentially a solitary activity. There are various ways and means of finding a writing community, both free and paid, and here are some you might want to check out.
Free
Check out your local library, They may just have a writing club, or be able to put you in touch with other local writers. Libraries are an absolute gift and if you don’t use yours, then you may be missing out!
Social media - In the Twitter glory days this was an excellent way to meet fellow writers, both online and IRL. Even today I think it’s worth following writer types on Insta and definitely here on Substack.
Paid but affordable
Agencies such as Spread the Word exist across the UK (New Writing North, New Writing South, Scottish Book Trust, amongst others) and there are similar in many countries. It’s worth seeking them out. They are a good point of contact to find out about writing groups and many may offer courses, awards and writing programmes to help you develop.
Mentoring is also an option if you want to learn from an experienced writer or editor. As well as various companies (The Novelry, Jericho Writers, TLC), a lot of individuals are offering this but my advice would be to do some research. Pick a mentor who you think will get your work and want to really help you with your goals.
Making an investment
Plenty of writers don’t fork out the big bucks for writing courses or novel writing programmes, but if you’re stuck and you can afford it, there are some great options out there. Don’t forget to look into scholarships or discounted places if you think you might qualify.
Companies offering writing courses
This is the likes of Faber Academy, Curtis Brown Creative, The Novelry, etc. Each offer slightly different options but many focus on writing a novel during a six to nine month period. My advice here is to look at what you get - how much teaching time, will your work be shown to agents, who is teaching. Have a project in mind - the greatest asset of these courses, in my view, is that they can really push you through when you feel like quitting. You’ll share work and meet other writers. But if you start without a clear idea it can be really difficult to gain any momentum.
The creative writing MA
All MAs are not created equally. There are specialist MAs such as the Crime Writing MA at UEA. Others focus on writing a novel. I loved doing my MA at Birkbeck because I just wanted to become a better writer. I enjoyed trying my hand at different things - short stories, playwriting, looking at different genres of fiction. If you just wanted to work on one project it wouldn’t be for you, but as it is, all of my novels so far, plus my upcoming one, started life on that course nine years ago. Great value for money! And our writing community lasted for years after the course ended.
Do you have any recommendations for writers seeking support? Leave them below!