The Importance of Community to Your Writing

The Importance of Community to Your Writing

by | Dec 30, 2019 | Writing | 0 comments

The Importance of Community to Your Writing

The Writing Gym’s former personal trainer helps me lay down some very important details about our writing community, Write to Publish.

Andi mentions a saying that goes, “It takes a village.” This pairs well with writing communities. It’s not only important to have a village, but more importantly, a village where people support you through difficult times and on something you have worked hard on creating.

What makes Write to Publish special is the way that we interact is based on science, on the way that our brain learns and creates the best.

This means that the way that we’re talking with each other and supporting each other is very different from what you might have seen in other writing groups.

Write to Publish is unlike other groups where people just say, “Hey, buy my $0.99 book” or “What should the title of my book be?” to which someone states a silly response. In Write to Publish, people are engaging in meaningful conversations about the writing and publishing process. They’re supporting each other, working to be helpful to one another, and trying to understand where a person is coming from as they participate in active listening rather than judgement.

It’s a really powerful community.

It’s good to see us as a community center where people come to learn and benefit from other writer’s experiences and knowledge, especially in our Writing Gym programs. If you have questions or if you’re unsure about something, you can simply ask. You can experience new and interesting things about your writing through other writers.

There are some negative impacts on a person and on a community when people try to take away from the group; for instance, when they get outside messages or they take their conversation within the community elsewhere. At the Writing Gym programs, we work hard to get writers into a creative mindset to boost workflow to finish their books. When people try to take away from this, there is a mindset change; there is unrest.

One errant comment from someone unqualified can break down weeks of writing and training that a writer has done through our training sessions.

We make sure people are keeping the conversation in the group to continue those quality conversations about writing, and to engage one another within the context of the group as they have been doing, because that’s where the real power is. That’s where the neuroscience is really engaged.

What we cultivate in Write to Publish and the Writing Gym programs is an inclusive and respectful community that only gives good, constructive feedback to advance your writing, not undermine it.

Join our Facebook page Write to PUBLISH and SELL YOUR NOVEL for writing tips and for the support of a writer community that we have been talking about.

To find out where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there put yourself on my calendar through this link.

How To Find A Quality Writing Group

How To Find A Quality Writing Group

by | Aug 30, 2019 | Writing, Writing & Neuroscience | 0 comments

How to Find a Quality Writing Group 


How to find a quality writing group is something writers ask tome about every single day, and it’s usually about how frustrated they are with where they’ve been, or because they can’t find the right place to be in. 

Writing groups can be frustrating experiences. Writers may not feel a sense of belonging and community, but most importantly they don’t get the help they need, help that is centered around quality feedback. Instead, what they get is a lot of negativity, backbiting, and comparisons. You can imagine how frustrating it is to be in this kind of environment. All these writers want is a place they can go and have a quality writing experience.

And that is why I created this group called Write to Publish.

In this group, we use a structure based on my study of neuroscience–how your brain thinks and creates the best. Let me tell you about one of the things we found. 

Negativity in a group not only feels bad for the receiving person, it also doesn’t work from a neuroscientific standpoint in helping you you learn and create well. So what does that mean here in Write to Publish? 

We stand for a supportive group where you can have supportive interactions with group members.

You can see that by scrolling through the group page. Nowhere in Write to Publish will you see insults, name-calling, criticism, and other negativity I have seen in other groups. That is something we do not tolerate. 

Other writing groups have people who join with a kind of “dump and leave” philosophy.” People jump in there and say “Buy my $0.99 ebook,” but never interact with anyone. All they want is people to read their ebook. You will never see a post like that in Write to Publish. We simply do not allow them. We do sometimes tell you about the programs that are tried, true, and tested in the absolute “know.”

 We are interested in you as a person and as a writer, so all of the programs we endorse in Write to Publish also work from a neuroscientific standpoint. 

People in other writing groups frequently ask for feedback. They want are beta readers, to send you some pages of their book, for you to give their book an amazon review, and more. You will never see people asking for feedback structures in Write to Publish.

So what does feedback mean to us?

Here, we take feedback seriously. It has to be quality, not something you get from just anyone. Our feedback is based on neuroscience, based on interactions that you have around your writing. That means we give feedback in the best way we know how, based on how your brain learns, creates, and revises the best. We want to protect you from beta readers and all the other businesses that happen in other writing groups. 

In Write to Publish, we care about our amazing community of writers.

We have tons of resources in our page, such as videos where I answer frequently asked questions about writing, publishing, and selling your novel. I address questions such as “How do I finish a novel?” “What do I do with my characters? My plot arc?” “What are the different kinds of publishing?” “How do I know that I got a reliable publisher” “How do I market my novel?” and more.

Here, we care a lot about your writing and publishing journey.

We do not tolerate negativity and poor feedback so you can have a space where your brain is functioning at optimal capacity, and you can be the writer you want to be. 

If you want to have a chat about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there, click this link. And please, do not hesitate to join our Facebook group Write to Publish if anything I said resonated with you. 

The Importance of a Writing Community

The Importance of a Writing Community

by | Aug 27, 2019 | Writing | 0 comments

The Importance of a Writing Community


Not too long ago, I was in front of a medieval mill in France where people from all over the countryside would gather. People would bring their flour to be ground, and meet many other people there.

I couldn’t help but think that mill was a place of community. As I was listening to the flowing water, I thought about the importance of community. 

In this digital age we have so few places where we really feel community, places we feel we can be ourselves and talk to people who are like-minded and will support us.

I’m really grateful for Write to Publish, because it is like this kind of community.

In this group, you see people posting about each other, being supportive, and celebrating each other’s wins, no matter big or small.  

It’s a beautiful community, but the Writing Gym is even greater, because people are working together, writing together, and getting a feel not only for what each writer is working on, but also how to give quality feedback based on neuroscience.

All of this occurs so that the writers can grow. I’ve watched these people go from being co-writers (people writing together) to family. I’ve seen them go to each other’s weddings, fly across the country to see each other, and send each other their published books.

It’s an amazing, powerful community, and I’m just I’m really grateful to be a part of it.

I’m grateful for all of the people in Write to Publish, the support that they give to each other, and even more grateful for the people in the Writing Gym, whether they’re in the VIP Program, the Publishing Mastermind, or Novel Selling U, where they are working to market and sell their novels. 

If you are ready to to feel this genuine support for your writing, join our Facebook group. If you are ready to talk about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there let’s chat. 

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