Monday, April 13, 2015

April meeting tomorrow in Dallas

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. Richard Bach.
I don't know about you, but I spent Lent blogging -- and it felt good, because I've been so obsessed with writing my novel the past year or two that I had allowed my blog to languish. So, as an act of self-denial, I put the novel aside and put some of my other talents to work for awhile. And tomorrow it will feel good to get to another monthly meeting of the Dallas/Fort Worth Catholic Writers group. Usual time, usual place -- click here if you've forgotten where and when that is.

Meanwhile, speaking of blogging, check out this post on Anne R. Allen's blog, "Ten Reasons for Authors to Blog." I like reason number 9:

To get you out of the garret

As with any solitary activity, writing can bring on feelings of isolation. We have a human need to connect, and a blog is a way into the blogosphere and the wider social web. Discovering and reading other people's blogs, connecting with people you otherwise wouldn't have met, conversation around shared interests – these are all side-effects of blogging, and there are more.

Combined with social media outreach in the form of a Twitter or Facebook account, a blog places you within a community of readers and writers from which peer support, friendships and inspiration soon follow.
Of course, even if you don't blog, you still "have a human need to connect" with others and have "conversation  based on shared interests" -- so why not come to the Dallas/Fort Worth Catholic Writers meeting?