Tag: books

Membership Has Its Privileges

lindaktaylor3 Comments

In last week’s blog, I talked about what it means to join the writing world. So if you’re going to join that world, the literary community, what—exactly—does that mean?

Communities exist everywhere—from clubs and organizations to online groups. The big ones get together at conventions. It takes folks of very particular interests to attend Comic-Con, or the World Orchid Conference, or the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers fair (have to hold my husband back from that one). People attend these conferences because that’s where they find like-minded people passionate about comics or orchids or wordworking.

We’re all looking for our “tribe,” that group of people with whom we can talk about what we care about. Jeff Goins describes this as a “place to belong. We want to be heard and known, to actually make a difference. We know we need community.” We join these communities because we love to talk about what we care about. We want to learn from each other.

It’s the same with writers.

Sure, we spend a lot of time alone in our garrets tapping away on our keyboards. Sure, we’re quiet and observant. Many of us are introverts.

But we still need each other.

We need to commune with other writers who understand what it means to have days of writing where nothing seems to work. We need to discuss particular aspects of our craft. We need to find our “sub-tribe,” those writers who have our same passion for political satire, novel writing, flash fiction, fantasy, memoir, how-to, or writing about cats. We also need fellow bibliophiles who love books and readers who absorb magazines and blogs—after all, if we don’t have an audience for our words, then who will read them?

The term we’re using for membership in this world—“literary citizenship”—is taken from an article on Brevity magazine’s web site called “Be an Open Node” by Blake Butler. (Apologies for some of the language in that post, but his points are important.) We’re borrowing the term “literary citizenship” to discuss what it means to be a member in the writing community, to have citizenship in the literary world.

Maybe you’re saying, “I’m fine. I don’t need a community. I have plenty of followers on Twitter or readers of my blog.” Or maybe, “I don’t want to join a community. I just want to write my book and sell it. Then people will find and follow me.”

I would argue that, first of all, if you’re a serious writer trying to sell your work or get it “out there” in some form, you’re already a member of the writing community. And so it follows that to be a member, you would do well to find the privileges of membership by following some basic guidelines. (People dress differently at Comic-Con than they do at the World Orchid Conference.) No, there aren’t really rules in the writing community, and no we don’t have a dress code (good thing), but in order to be good literary citizens, we should start with one very important step:

As citizens of the literary world, we should constantly give positive contributions to it.

Do this: Imagine you’re at your favorite little coffee shop. Around you are some of your favorite tribe members. Maybe one of you has been recently published. The rest of you are working at various phases of your manuscripts. What are you talking about? Won’t you offer your services to tell everyone in the rest of your “other” world about your friend’s new book? Won’t you help your other friend work out a sticky plot point? Won’t you discuss the most recent book by another favorite author—and recommend other books to one another? Won’t you then go purchase some of those recommended books?

That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

See? We need each other. That’s the first step. There are many ways to contribute positively to our literary world. And you know what? What goes around comes around.

Let’s talk together about being good literary citizens and the privileges membership brings. I’ll tell you what I’m learning as I go, and please feel free to tell me what you think and what you do.

You’re my tribe, so I’m eager to hear from you!

Joining the World of Writers

lindaktaylor12 Comments

I’ve revised my blog a bit to take advantage of a new pathway my life has taken over the last couple of years. I began the blog simply to write about the experiences my husband and I have had moving from our little plot in the suburbs to our couple acres in the country–complete with many (many) animals. I surely haven’t exhausted the topic (after all, you haven’t heard yet about even more cats who made their way to us!), and I may even return to it from time to time should the situation warrant. But I’m excited about some new things in our lives (not counting becoming parents-in-law again or now being first-time grandparents).

Many of you know I’ve been working in various areas of publishing for the past 30 years. I walked into my first job not even knowing proofreader marks! The last 20 years or so I’ve spent working with Livingstone, most recently as editorial director. Suffice it to say, I’ve seen publishing change drastically in my time (you’d think I was ninety years old looking back at steam engines–but it almost feels like that when I consider the way I do my job now as compared to when I began).

I love editing. There’s just something about words. How they look on the page bumping up against other words. How they sound. The pictures they bring to mind. I love the search for the right word. I love to make a clunky sentence sing. I love to change “their” to “they’re” (or “there”) when the writer gets it wrong. I love helping writers sound the best they can.

And I love writing.

And I love books.

So all that to say that our journey from the city to the country brought me to a place physically where I already was mentally–it was time to finally get that master’s degree and then begin teaching in order to pass along some of what I know to the next generation.

So here I am, a 54-year-old married grandma graduate student sitting in classes with folks who could be my children. How energizing is that? I love it! Really, I wish I had had half the wherewithal these kids seem to have when I was their age. The students in my Editing class where I teach as an adjunct seem to “get” so much more than I ever “got” at the time. And right now, as part of my research paper/thesis preparation this semester, I get to sit in on a class with one of my favorite professors, Cathy Day. She is creating this class called Literary Citizenship, teaching Creative Writing students what it means to join the world of writers out there in the real world. These students already tweet and have fan pages and web sites and blogs–again, I wish I’d had that kind of gumption in my day (does “gumption” make me sound old? Well . . .).

Think about it–to join any kind of group or community, you have to follow a few ground rules that are just part of being associated there. To pledge a fraternity or sorority, you need to follow certain guidelines. To join a church, you need to make a particular statement of faith. To move into a certain area in town, you need to understand that once in awhile you may be required to open your historic home for people to view (ask Cathy about that) or maybe be part of the annual block party. I had a friend who moved into a house on a cul-de-sac and learned that she was required to have only white Christmas lights on her house–no colored lights. That would mess up the “look” of her community’s little circular part of the world at Christmastime.

Well, Creative Writing students are writers who need to realize they are part of a bigger community of writers. And many of you are writers–writing books, articles, essays, stories, blogs, reports, or even simply journaling your thoughts. You, too, are part of that community. Publishing has changed over these last few decades. You see, it used to be all about getting published. Now, push a few buttons and anyone can be a published author. (That’s good and bad, but also a topic for another blog post.) I like the fact that indie presses are out there taking chances on some of us “little folks” who might not break in to the Big 5. I like the fact that a family member can write up a family history and create a book as a keepsake for his or her limited (but appreciative) audience. Publishing is changing, and it can be tough to keep up. But as writers, we need to realize that it isn’t just about us; it’s about the community of writers–that “world” of writers. It’s about us supporting one another and the writing we create.

It’s all about becoming good literary citizens.

What does that mean? More to come here, but please also follow the rest of my class members’ blogs (the ones who have gumption, remember?) and our fearless professor, Cathy Day, at our Literary Citizenship web site.

Wanna be a writer? Become a good literary citizen. Join us on the journey.