How Being Part of a Writing Community Can Help You Achieve Your Goals
Writing is not always easy. It’s often described like a kind of hell. Many of us describe it as something we can’t live without or like it is something we were called to do. It’s staggeringly difficult to stick to a task you feel is insurmountable at times, and it becomes nearly impossible when you face that task alone.
There is a reason gyms like Orangetheory—which focuses on group workouts that still allow you to have your own individual goals, markers of achievements, and limits—are so popular. They foster a vital sense of community when facing a daunting task.
A community (in my opinion) can make or break your writing success. For a long part of my writing journey I wrote alone. It wasn’t until I started going to writing camps that I really saw my writing grow and improve. It also was not until the last year and a half when I started reaching out to local writers in my area, going to readings, and going to sessions where people write together, that I started to see myself begin to achieve some of my publication goals. Maybe it’s because I’m an extrovert that I find these environments to be incredibly helpful, but I believe there is more to it than that.
According to social psychologists, it’s more likely than not that we are “wired to adopt the goals of the people around with, particularly when they feel close to those others.” I believe this is what has been so helpful for me personally, and why other writers should try to connect with their local or online writing community. It is likely also reinforced by our understanding of in-group, out-group psychology, serving to create a stronger bond between writers who write together and discuss their work together—especially if that also includes discussing their writing goals.
In writing we place so much emphasis on our writing goals, and not quite enough on what steps we take to achieve them. I hope this little psychology tip is something you can keep in your back pocket and can use to achieve your writing goals both now and in the future! Community isn’t just important for us socially, it can also be integral to helping us achieve our goals.
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Jessi Quinn Alperin
Jessi Quinn Alperin (they/them) is a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. While there, they served as an editor for Forbes & Fifth for two years. Their poetry has been published by 70 Faces and Haunted Zine and they have also had a personal essay published in Twentyhood Magazine and two articles published for Environmental Health News. Jessi previously self-published a collection of poetry they had written between 2013-2017. They are currently a Social Justice Springboard Fellow for Oberlin College’s Hillel.