The Writing Community on Twitter Is a Surprisingly Supportive Space
Earlier this week, I completed the manuscript for my first novel, Grown Men Cry Out at Night. It’s 90,000 words and it is the culmination of seven months of research, nine months of writing every day, and a lifetime of dreams that one day I would be a published author. I’m now one step closer to that dream.
As any writer knows, writing is work. Really hard work. For me, the process is not particularly enjoyable. When I started my novel in January 2022, I struggled to reach my daily goal of writing 500 words. But over the past few weeks and months, as the characters became closer to me, I was able to write a thousand words a day and even more. I acted as the scribe, writing down the conversations of characters that I overhead in my dreams. They started living in my head and honestly, I’m not sure I liked that. I wanted them out of my head and I wanted their story on the page where it was always meant to be.
Writing is by and large a solitary experience. However, I discovered that I wasn’t alone in my journey. There were others out there who experienced the same bouts of writers block and the same doubts, fears, and insecurity that I felt. How would people react to my work? Are my words even readable? Would anyone ever pick up and read my novel from beginning to end? What I discovered, starting with a few baby steps in March 2022, was that there is a writing community tucked away within the universe of misinformation, disinformation, grievance, and outrage. I discovered a vibrant community of fellow writers in the very nexus of that universe, on of all places, on Twitter.
Yes Twitter. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. I only joined Twitter because I thought that it might be a place where I could eventually promote my work. And what I have discovered is that Twitter is in all likelihood not a very good promotional platform, at least for me. But it is a place where I can connect with other writers, share our stories, laugh a little, cry a lot, and just commiserate together about the process of querying, publishing, and all of other aspects of the writing business that most of us don’t really know much about, much less care. All we want to do is write.
So, with that said, I want to give thanks to a few people within the writing community who have been extraordinarily helpful to me. You’ve been wonderfully kind, you’ve shared what you have learned freely, you have taught me, and each of you in your own way has created an imprint on me and on my work. These are the people I want to thank today, because I don’t want to wait until tomorrow or next week.
The first person I want to recognize is a young Canadian writer named Stefanie Barnfather. Stefanie is an amateur mixologist and I believe one of the first times we connected was when she shared a cocktail recipe with me, which we have appropriately named “The Stefanie.” It’s not “a” Stefanie. No. If you were to order this drink at a bar, you must order “The Stefanie” because it and she are one of a kind.
What I have learned from Stefanie and because of her influence, what I have attempted to incorporate into my current work is humor. Grown Men Cry Out at Night is a dark story about finding the people responsible for the deaths of thousands of slave laborers during World War II. But, even in life’s darkest moments, humor has a place and a purpose. Thank you Stefanie for reminding me of this.
Elizabeth Kaida is a talented young writer who has just published her first novel. We met on Twitter and chatted about our favorite episodes from the classic television series The Twilight Zone. I think we decided that Time Enough at Last – There Was Time Now, a story about an anti-social bookworm was at or near the top of our list. In her debut novel, Searching for Sun, Elizabeth has created a world where people and androids are colonizing faraway worlds among the stars. She vividly describes these worlds and the reader is immediately immersed and transported to places in distant galaxies. You want to dwell on her words just for the chance to relish the experience just a bit longer. There are specific scenes that I wrote with Elizabeth and her writing in mind. So, thank you Elizabeth.
Like me, Bridget Walsh is a person of a certain age who has started writing later in life. She writes historical fiction, as I do. She has one novel published, Daughters of the Famine Road and once again like me, plans to write a series based on the characters she has created. I’ve learned three really important things from Bridget. First, she has demonstrated to me how to establish and hold onto the arc of a sweeping story. Second, her stories feature strong female characters, but her novel will equally appeal to male readers. She has reminded me to write for all readers. And finally, she has shared many insights about the ins and outs of self-publishing, as well as providing the historical background for her story. She’s shared all of that on Twitter and on her excellent blog. Honestly, Bridget . . . I’m trying to model my own blog after yours. I have a long way to go, but you’ve been such a wonderful teacher to me. Thank you!
And finally, I need to thank a very well known and highly successful author, Amor Towles. You probably know him from Rules of Civility and The Lincoln Highway. I picked up and read his A Gentleman in Moscow earlier this year and was floored by it. And then I saw his interview on CBS News Saturday Morning. In the interview he talked about how he does most of his research AFTER he writes his manuscript. You have no idea how liberating that concept was for me. As a former intelligence analyst, I love research. I love obscure facts. I love citing them and referring to them. But, hey. I’m writing a novel. It doesn’t need footnotes or a bibliography. after seeing the interview, I no longer got bogged down in historical minutia, which while interesting did nothing to advance my story. Amor, you’ve helped me to free up my writing so that my characters tell the story. That is only right because after all, they were there.
Here’s the link to the video of the Amor Towles interview on CBS News Saturday morning. It’s well worth viewing.
So, thank you fellow writers and thanks to all of you in Twitter’s writing community. In a universe where many are only shouting, my fellow writers on Twitter actually take the time to listen.