Where Do You Belong?

NEWS and a GIVEAWAY:

As I hinted last month, I’m delighted to confirm that the second edition of my collection of creative interventions, FLOAT • Becoming Unstuck for Writers, is now published and ready for purchase!

It’s the same handy book, updated and even better looking. Copies are available now from Bookshop, Amazon, and by order from your local bookstore.

To celebrate, I’m offering a free copy of the new edition in paperback to one of you. Just email me with “FLOAT” in the subject line. In the body of the email, put your preferred postal mailing address anywhere in the continental US. (It can be your address, or a friend’s.)

I’ll select a winner at random and send out your free copy ASAP.

Where do you belong? Do you know?

Some writers just fit in, right? They find friends and colleagues, slide easily into lively conversations with new people, and write with abandon while generating near-flawless first drafts. Publishers seek them out. They wake up with great hair.

Kidding.

Like me, you’re probably willing to accept that the life of the writer is challenging. And it’s challenging for each of us in our own ways. Because of this, it can look as though other people – or at least some specific, envy-inducing other people – have it a lot easier than we do. Our messy, fraught process can’t be similar to how the cool kids work. Can it?

Maybe some writers do have it easier

Possibly that’s true. They may be a media darling. Income from their writing may support their comfortable life. They may have no current caregiving responsibilities and enjoy robust health. They may have a strongly supportive community. But you know what? I’m willing to bet that almost all of us wonder from time to time where we belong in the scheme of things.

The Timeless Clan of Writers

As primates – social animals – we are predisposed to want to belong. Isolation can be appealing, especially for those of us on the introverted end of the spectrum, but meaningful interactions with others are essential. For a writer or other creative person, relationships with fellow makers can be richly rewarding and nourishing, even precious. When these relationships are scarce on the ground, I like to remember, as a baseline, the Timeless Clan of Writers. They offer an openhearted welcome to every writer. I expand on this idea in FLOAT:

The timeless clan of writers pays no mind to the name on the spine, or whether the book is in print at all. Many in the clan existed on earth as storytellers before paper books even came to be. They don’t judge. They welcome.

Can you feel the warmth?
Photo credit: @N3T1O on Visualhunt.com

The global clan of writers is huge. Writers in many traditions are all welcome, reaching back in time to storytelling ancestors around a fire. Can you see them surrounded by their stories, painted onto the cave walls?

Implications of timeless clan membership

Accepting yourself as a member of the timeless clan can also increase the mercy you show yourself. Instead of punishing yourself with extra hours and fierce demands, the knowledge that you do belong somewhere can provide a mellowing influence….You know you have a place in the long stream of human experience on this planet, and that certainty gives you some ground to stand on.

Remember you already belong

If you begin to feel a little too isolated – and too needy for validation and connection to seek them out right now – consider this: You already have a community. As a writer, you share this experience with countless others around the world, now and in centuries past. Even when you’re working in solitude, you’re connected.

We all are.

Secure in your membership in the Timeless Clan, reaching out the next time – to a fellow writer, publisher, editor, agent, beta reader, or social media figure – might feel a little more doable. A little more colleague-to-colleague. A little more likely to lead to another possible step. And another after that one.

When it’s time to extend yourself, remember you belong by default to the Timeless Clan. Worth an experiment?

PS In case you are wondering, while they have some traits in common, the Timeless Clan isn’t the same as your Imaginary Friend. I recommend them both 😉

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Want to chat about your creative life? Schedule a free welcome call with me. For more creativity tools, pick up your copy of FLOAT • Becoming Unstuck for Writers, get a deck of FLOAT Cards for Writers, and visit the Library on the Anne Carley Creative website.

Thanks for reading!