In 2020, I challenged my best friend and fellow author, J. Lynn Million, to write a short story using a silly prompt as a way to hopefully reignite her love for writing. One thing I knew about her was that writing was something she loved doing years ago, but life had a way of stopping her from indulging in this passion of hers.
I was really excited when she took me up on my challenge and pleasantly surprised when she flipped it back on me to join her. Similarly, she also understood my love for writing and the fact I had long retired my pen unless I was writing greeting cards.
That first year, we would take turns issuing a weekly prompt that would aide us as we enhanced our short story into a potential storyline and eventually, a book (and series) idea.
In 2022, we decided to get a little more serious and committed to writing our first novel during the fall. I think we both underestimated how difficult this task was. I decided to try my hand at being a pantser which was an epic failure for me. I managed to write a romance book with no romance.
In the spring of 2023, I was cleaning up book when I caught myself writing my life story through one of my characters, which was all wrong for the book I had been writing. This caused me to jump ship and explore writing my story in the fall of 2023 making it the second year I had devoted to writing. The end result of that time is Authentically Anchored.
With J. Lynn's help, I persevered through trials of writing my story, near giving up, and many episodes of writers block. I knew that if I were to continue on writing, this was the way I wanted to do it, because writing with her was proving to be the accountability and stability I needed as a writer.
Here we are approaching fall of 2024, and while I should probably take the time off to recuperate after publishing my book this summer, instead, I am going all in on writing again.
With the launch of my new ministry, Authentically Created, I am hosting a free three-month writing workshop which will take place this fall.
I wanted to no only personally invite you to join me and J. Lynn this fall, but to also share with you why writing in a community is extremely helpful. If you'd like to join us, please sign up!
Now...on to the reasons why writing in a community is extremely helpful:
- Motivation and Accountability - No more saying you'll start some other time, this workshop is designed to provide you with motivation and accountability to ensure you begin now!
- Feedback and Critique - No more second guessing if what you are doing is viable, you can seek feedback and critique from others in the workshop.
- Networking and Opportunity - You never know where new connections may lead you, or what doors they open for you.
- Learning and Skill Development - If you aren't sure where to begin, a community can help you get started.
- Emotional Support - On days when you feel like you can't keep writing, your community is there to help lift you up.
- Inspiration - Meeting other people who write in various genres and sub genres open you up for discussions you may not otherwise have resulting in inspiration for your next book.
Being a part of a community is incredible. Please join us, we'd love to have you!
With Grace, Shonda Ramsey