Episode 68: [Marissa Loewen] Why You Become a Better Writer in Community

This week’s episode is going to amplify what we believe so strongly here at the Inspired Writer Collective: Writing in community makes you a more productive and better writer.

We welcome our guest, Marissa Loewen, who discusses the incredible benefits writers receive when they join a community of creative minds. Marissa hosts a virtual space for entrepreneurs, business owners, and writers. There’s no need to create in isolation. 

When you join a community, you’ll find yourself getting closer to the finish line of your project through accountability and collaboration. 

As a writer, you also have the privilege of being in community with your readers. It’s an inspiring insight from this week’s podcast about the moment someone reads your words that you’ve created a community. 

If you’ve been wondering about whether or not you should join a writing group, or online writing community, this episode is the nudge you need to take the leap.  

Introducing Marissa Loewen 

Marissa Loewen's entrepreneurial journey began long before most even contemplated their first job. As a precocious elementary school student, she identified a simple yet impactful need among her classmates - cold milk at lunchtime. With the resourcefulness that would come to define her career, Marissa established her first business: a milk counter serving chilled refreshments to grateful peers. This early venture was just the first spark of Marissa's innovative spirit.

Since 2012, Marissa has owned On the Spot Pop Ups, a company creating opportunities for makers and artists, partnering with major entities like Etsy Canada. She also leads Create the Rules, embodying her philosophy of forging new paths. As owner, she empowers individuals and organizations to break free from conventional thinking.

As Chief Strategist of Create the Rules Catalyst, the only Done-WITH-You support system for impact-driven business owners and entrepreneurs, Marissa ignites transformative change across industries, guiding clients to uncover opportunities and revolutionize their approaches. Her journey from schoolyard entrepreneur to influential strategist demonstrates the power of creative thinking and determination. Through her ventures, Marissa actively shapes the future of business with innovative solutions.

Connect with Marissa online

https://www.createtherules.com

https://www.youtube.com/@createtherules

https://www.instagram.com/@createtherules

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We hope you've found guidance and inspiration for your own writing.

Here are two resources for you:

Get your list of 4 Essential Reads for Memoir Writers

Get your Character Coffee Chat Guide for Character Development

Transcript

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Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie book coaches who help you finish your book. Tune in each week as we dig into the writing process, including reaching your goals and silencing your inner critic. You'll learn how to deepen your characters, hone your authentic storytelling style, and strengthen your writing muscles by exploring books in and out of your own genre. You'll also hear from published authors, industry experts, and marketing specialists who will give you tools to navigate this. Self-publishing landscape. We are here to provide the support and accountability you need throughout the marathon of writing so you stop running in place, editing the same chapter over and over, and find the confidence to move forward. Get your copy of a curated list of four essential craft books to assist your memoir writing or a character coffee chat for fiction writers through the links in the show notes, let's bring your book to life together. Selective podcast. I am your co-host, Elizabeth, and I'm here today with Marisa Lowen. We were already starting on this conversation off camera, you know, before we hit record about community and about writing, and that's gonna be our main conversation for today. How to find community, why you need community, and why community as a writer is gonna make your writing better. Um, so before we get too into the weeds, you know, before Yeah, because I'm ready to dive in. I'm like, as soon as you said that I was like, yeah, let's talk about it. Exactly. So let me just briefly introduce Marisa. Um, I just love your bubbly personality. I. And I was excited to have you as a guest because you've got your hands in so many different cool areas. You support entrepreneurs and business owners, and you've got a publishing company in Canada and you have a community of writers. Um, and I would do such an insufficient job of describing all of that. So I'm gonna toss it to you to like Yeah. Continue to introduce yourself and then we'll launch into the community conversation. I love that. So yes. My name is Marisa Lowen. I'm a community. I say I call myself a community catalyst because what I have done, especially over, I'll say the last 15 years, is really worked at how we can access the power of community. I started with a pop-up shop where we work with makers, creators, and authors, writers. We definitely had, we had people who would write at our events, our pop-up events. They would write in, in action, and then they would share what they wrote. But we also had writers and authors who were. Selling their books there. So it's always been a very big part of my community. We created these popups and what it was about was not just about this one time event, but it was about creating the community, not only where we were, we were popping up into empty spaces. So we engaged the community around us, the stores that, everything that was already existing to be a part of this event, but the actual makers and creators and writers themselves, and it was really important for us to kind of see. How, when we work together, what are the things that are possible? And now what I'm doing is I still have my event company, but what I also have is a virtual space for entrepreneurs and business owners and writers. And authors. We have a whole collection different, we have everybody from somebody who does pottery to authors to um, therapists, hypnotist, you, you, you name it. We have it in there. Um, but what it is, is it's about a community. It's about coming together. What we say is, you're not working. Uh, you might be working for yourself, but you're not working by yourself. Mm-hmm. The idea is that. When we are working in isolation. We are, I mean, sometimes we just need it to get the focus. We just like, I'm gonna tap it up. But then you start to think like, okay, what would this be like if I was throwing this against somebody else's ideas? And we start to have this collaboration space. Then when we look at bringing in what happens in community as body doubling, accountability, all of these kind of factors that actually help us get to the finish line, it's powerful. Stuff. Right? And so what we've done in Create the rules Catalyst is create this virtual space, and it is not like any other kind of virtual space out there. It is literally rooms and we sit in there with avatars and the mix of fantasy and reality in these spaces. But what we do is we offer all of those tools, the body doubling, the accountability, but also the collaboration and the idea generation and the idea curation because that is something that we can't always do on ourselves. We can. You know, we're, if we were just locked in a room and we weren't able to see any kind of window and we weren't able to see experience, any other kind of experience, our writing is going to be really one note, right? Mm-hmm. It's gonna be only the experience we have in that area. Our imagination allows us to expand, but if we haven't even ever got the idea of it or the experience of it. Our, it can be really challenging for our mind to really continue and, and to really bring that idea out into a fullness. So that's what I do. But I'm gonna keep talking. So like, let's talk more about community. Absolutely. Because you and I'll talk forever about community and it's really exciting to both of us. So you'll see us probably getting like, Ooh, and yeah, just don't mind it. We'll just exactly. I love that accountability piece, the body doubling. Um, I love that you use that terminology. It's very, you know, present in the neurodivergent space, but maybe other people haven't heard that. Yeah. But it is a great tactic and that's something that Stephanie and I have used within our own writing practice, and we've invited other, you know, people, listeners or email subscribers to join us for those sort of virtual writing sessions where. You know, we're, we're kind of pitching what we're gonna be working on, you know, set some intention, have some accountability, but then we write on our own, you know, we black out our screens and then we return at the end of like, say 40 minutes or whatever. Right. And I just found that I am so productive during those times. Mm-hmm. Even if I, when I sit down, if I'm still unclear about what I wanna write, just knowing that Stephanie's on the other side of the screen doing the same thing, struggling in similar ways or, or able to give me some encouragement. Sometimes we share pieces of what we've written. Sometimes we don't. It just depends, but. Uh, it's so easy for me to back out of my own commitments to myself. Mm-hmm. But I would never leave Stephanie hanging, so that that added accountability that comes with being in community is so valuable to me. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We have what we call co-writing sessions, which are specifically you coming in and there's no kind of boundaries around it, which is like both lovely and scary at the same time for some people, because we have some people come in and they're like, I've literally been staring in a blank screen for hours. I don't, I know what I want to say, but I can't get started that first word for anyone who is, whether you are a writer professionally, full-time, part-time, or just sometimes that first word is like the mo, it's the hardest word, right? Because mm-hmm. You're, you know that there's so much pressure behind it, you know that like if you don't get that first word completely right, people might not finish the sentence, and there's so much expectation that we build up in there, so then we just don't write anything. Right, and it's just like that blank screen. And so some people come in like that and they just, they haven't even started with the first word and it's like, oh, this is fantastic. We actually take the writing away from them and they just get to ideate. They just get to like talk about things. They just get to like formulate and we have someone else come in and start writing for them. And it might not be the finished piece. It might be they might take it, but it just takes away that pressure of putting that first word down and then they'll take with it and run. And that's like magic. It's just absolutely. Uh, fascinating to see that happen. Well, and even having to like tap into that word finding, like sometimes I just get stuck trying to find the right word to explain the emotion I'm feeling and, you know, it'd be easier for me to just say it in a sentence and then find the word later. So I love that. I love that openness of like, let the person just have their ideas flow at the rate that they're flowing. Mm-hmm. And someone else is capturing like, yep. The, the actual like logistics of the conversation or the idea. Um, I also really love this idea of taking some time, especially when you're struggling with writing, to do almost like a Pinterest board for your character Yeah. Or your storyline or a particular environment. Because sometimes for us that are more visual, being able to see that visual representation of what we're trying to capture with words helps bridge that gap in our minds between mm-hmm. Like the idea and then getting it to the page. So that's a really fun thing to do in like a coworking space as well, is to like throw some just kind of general ideas out there and then see what people come up with visually. And then, you know, sometimes you'll resonate with something that. You didn't exactly like know that you were going with, but when you see it, you're like, oh yeah, that's the kind of like gloomy, I meant, you know, it wasn't scary gloomy, it was, you know, cloudy day gloomy or you know, whatever. Yeah, I love that. I'm actually gonna steal that for our community. Please do. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna lift it right off of this little podcast we're doing because that's a great idea. We can get people to do something fun and creative.'cause there is a lot of studies out there where it shows like if you're trying to be creative in one area. And your brain is just not, or your hand, your brand brain hand coordination is not coming out doing something completely different. I have a, a writing trick that I, I write haikus, and so there's this kind of like a little, it's a, it's, it's not my idea. Someone else came up with it. But it's basically you start doing haikus and then you get faster and faster. So the idea is that you can do a haiku in 30 seconds. And what I do is I adapted that, um. Strategy to writing. If, especially if you know you have a topic that you wanna write, start writing the hi. Don't do any of the, don't do any of the topic when you first start doing the haikus, but when you start to find that you're getting that 5, 7, 5 rhythm in there, switch it to the topic that you're, you're about to do and start writing the haikus in it. And then you'll just find that once you get to this point, you're like, oh, a sudden, wait, wait. I have so much. And it's because you switched off your brain again from the pressure of doing the thing you need to do. And the haiku becomes this really great way for your mind to start getting like, you know, all the neurons firing and the, and it's something completely different. But the Pinterest idea that you had is even greater because if you wanna get away from the words, kind of it, getting into the visual, getting into the imagery of it. Next thing you know, you're in the room with your character. You're in the room with that memory you're in, that you're in that space, and now you're seeing the visual elements of it. So I love that idea. That's fantastic. Yeah.'cause it can be especially hard whether you're dealing with a fictional kind of fantasy, unreal thing that you're just creating from scratch or especially I think it's even challenging when you're trying to A, actually write about real life, you know? Mm-hmm. When you have an actual memory of some event that you're trying to write down. But like when we're in those moments, at least for me, I'm just remembering the feeling, you know? Mm-hmm. I might have a journal injury that even emphasizes the feeling or the takeaways from that moment, but I'm not remembering like, what does a carnival actually look like? Or what does a carnival like? What's going on around, you know, me in this moment that like I was not aware of in that moment, but will be helpful for setting the scene for the reader. You know? And so then you start looking at like, okay, what are the sounds you would hear? What are the sites you would see? Yeah. And I love this for like,'cause I know you, um, teach and help people create memoirs. Mm-hmm. I think this is fantastic for that because, you know, we're in the moment, right. We're just, like you said, we're feeling it. We might catch the snippets of what was said in the conversation, but when we're trying to tell the story, it's really important that we bring the person in the room with us. Right. And they don't know the carnival is happening around us. So what does that mean? You know, was it loud? What were the noises? What were the conversations that you heard that was away from that memory that. Are are relevant to that, to allow people to come in and be basically, virtually standing beside you and, and being into that experience. So I think that's like, it's just, is just fantastic. What Rao Thank you, Bravo for that. I mean, we all know what it's like when you walk past that cotton candy stand, right? Sure. You can smell it before you see it, but they don't know you're standing beside the cotton candy sand. If you don't say, you know, the, the sweet scent of that cotton candy, the war of the machine to be able to see the strands floating in the air. Once you, then the person's like pH, right? Right. There're with you and now the conversation that you're about to tell or the, the, the event that is happening now has way more meaning and it becomes so much more resonant for them because they can have all of that background experience with you. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the main reasons that I sort of frown on people who are trying to write memoir. Solely just translating what they have from their journals onto the page. Mm-hmm. Now I've kind of eased up in my stance on this because I have started to use some of my old journal entries into my memoir manuscript to, to try and capture like all that internal dialogue that would be difficult to capture otherwise in pros. Um, so it is helpful for that. But if you just rely on your journal, unless people journal way different than I do, like there's none of that scene setting. There's no descriptors. No, it's, it's just about the way that you're feeling, the way you're processing things, you know, your, your thought patterns, how it runs up or pushes against particular beliefs you have and all that is super helpful and kind of the backbone of memoir. But like you said, we've gotta set that scene for our reader because. They need to be in that, you know, turmoil or you know, that kind of early love feeling with you, you know? Mm-hmm. Like they, to help let them be in the scene. Then they can tap into like the emotions that you're trying to paint within that. And now we have just demonstrated two types of community that's valuable for writers. One is that you and I are in community and we've just exchanged an idea and now we've created something else over here because you told me your idea and I'm like, Ooh, now I can do this. And now we're in community, you and I creating there. So this is where a great example of how writing and community happens because the idea got developed or. Spark happen. Mm-hmm. But you've also pointed out being community with your readers. And this is like a fantastic thing that I think we don't always think about as authors because we're over here transcribing the moment, but the moment that somebody reads our words, we're in community with them. Mm-hmm. So what are the things that we need to do when we're writing to help people actually feel like they belong here? And this is something we don't always talk about with community, is the, is the feeling of belonging. You think, oh, okay, I wanna be at a club, I wanna be in an organization, I wanna be work. For a company, the feeling of belonging is important there because they wanna love what they do and they wanna keep coming back. So is your book, so is your writing any kind of piece of that? Your play, you're in community with the person who's consuming that. And so you wanna make sure they belong just as much in that story so that they can, they can keep reading, right? Mm-hmm. And so that's powerful. I love that you reframe that and you called that out and that's amazing that, you know, we're kind of the meta, like we're doing community while talking about community. Um, and the piece that you just talked about, that connection to the reader, I think that's where authenticity comes in, especially with memoir, because how is the reader ever gonna feel like they belong if they can still sense that wall up between you and them if they still feel like there's some kind of. Other thing going on under the surface that they're not, you know, able to have any glimpse of or be aware of. Um, and, and I think that's what makes a really good memoir is when you can show up authentically. And of course there are so many like mental roadblocks that come with that. Like, you know, worrying about how people might perceive you, how people might judge you for what you're sharing, whether you're going to use people's actual names or whether you're going to change some sort of aspect about them to sort of camouflage their identity. And you know, there are some like bigger legal things, but those are really in the more like extreme cases. Largely it's about being, getting to a point where you own your own story. Mm-hmm. And where you can recognize what parts are yours to share because they are related to you. And then finding where you feel comfortable with that line as far as what is really someone else's story or how to Right. Provide a little bit of boundary around how far into that you go. And merely just use your impressions, making sure you phrase it as, this was how I felt about this, this is how I saw this, this is how I experienced it, and, and leaving that latitude for there to be other versions of truth. Yeah, and that's really powerful in any community that we're in. I think that should be kind of one of those ground rules, is to remember that what we're experiencing isn't the same as what the other person is experiencing, and they've got their entire, they've got an entire thing happening with them, and they're even interpreting the event that we're writing in that memoir through their own lens and through their own past experiences. And whether we're in a writer, a community, community of writers, that's important to come in there too, because if you're in a community of writers and you're there to share and to develop the ideas and to help have the accountability. You have to remember too, that as you're sharing, if you do share your writing within that community, they're coming at it from their own bias, their own experience. Right? Mm-hmm. And this is where, it's an interesting aspect from a story development or when we're doing our writing practice is it can be good and bad, right? So one, it could be that if somebody's coming in with their own experience and you're like, oh, I never thought about that way. Okay, this is a better way. I could write that. Or you know, if they're working with you, you're able to say, okay, from a legal standpoint. You can't say that, but you can say like, here's how you can actually write it from your own experience. So that's important. But you could also be getting somebody like, I don't think you should write that, because it makes them uncomfortable. Because it reminds them of something that happened in their own experience. Right. And so this is an interesting time for when you're writing in community. Is to be able to take that feedback. Both what I say, like I don't wanna say it's good, bad, but it is. They couldn't have negative connotations on your writing. Or you can look at it and say, oh, they're experiencing something different. They're interpreting this, writing this way. Is it important for me to leave it like that because I want to create that uncomfortableness and I want to spark dialogue and I want people to come to the table or. Is it that I don't want them to have that experience. I want them to be able to feel like they can relate to it or that they can see my point of view and have them step into it and have a conversation. That way, that becomes that powerful conversation that you might not experience. You might publish your book, especially if you're the self-publishing. You don't have that editor going through that whole experience and kind of giving you that feedback. But if you're in a community of writers and you put that out to them, you could gain that valuable insight before you put it out into the world, and it could possibly make your writing even better. I have a personal example of this. I sent my, an early version of my manuscript, it's gone through a number of different editing rounds now, but I sent it to a developmental editor and she gave me questions back about like, oh, were you having an affair with your coworker? And I was like, no, no. Like, and, and I was, I was trying to be like. At that point I was trying to not write about the sex assault, and I was trying to like add some, like camouflage. And this was not the same coworker. This was a different coworker that Yeah. That was aware of the incident and, and you know, I was debating about whether I was gonna leave the job or not. And so I was keeping this secret about whether I was gonna leave the job, but the way I had phrased it. Uh, my editor, when she read it, she was like, oh, were you in this, this coworker having an affair? And I'm just like, no, no, no, no, no. So it's like a perfect example of what you're saying that, you know, by having beta readers, by, you know, trying your, your writing out and letting other writers give you some feedback on it, then you can avoid some of those misconceptions that we as the person writing, especially when we're writing about our own life, there's so much that we understand about ourselves that we kind of. Assume or take for granted that a reader who's totally unfamiliar with your life may not pick up on properly. And so to be mm-hmm. You know, to find those moments where you need to be more explicit, where you need to just say the thing versus trying to do a little like trick at the end. And, you know, like that was very eye-opening for me of like, oh, I was trying to be all like coy about this thing, but maybe I just actually need to write the thing. Because I don't want this other assumption if that's where it looks like if I don't provide the critical information. And I think that's an excellent example of how neurodivergent authors can really excel. Because depending on, you know, what the neurodivergence is, is that you're going to sometimes, you know, miss. Passive aggressive connotations. You're sometimes gonna miss sarcasm. You're sometimes maybe you want to learn how to do, put a a little bit of that in there to add to the story. And if you can't do that yourself, then you can help you have someone else in your community help you to create that together, right? Mm-hmm. And now you've accessed their skill in writing and being able to put it in yours and not necessarily have to, um. You know, you, you definitely wanna learn it for yourself if you can, but if you can't, I mean, this is where we start to look at accessibility, even from a creativity standpoint and how we start, you know, looking at the skills of other people and bringing it into our own writing practice. Mm-hmm. Yeah, very true. I really struggle with dialogue. I think for that, that reason where it's like, even when I'm trying to recreate these scenes that I've lived, like I. You could not ask me to repeat what you just said and I'd be able to repeat what you just said. I know the vibe, I know the feeling. I'm in the moment I'm here with you. But as far as being able to then go back and craft that scene into words, I really struggle with that. Like that's very hard for me. Um, and so it is helpful to have a community of people to kind of bounce those ideas off, like. How, how can I use some like word choice to get this point across and, and still create that same vibe and that feel, because of course we don't have to like directly quote the situation in a memoir, but just to capture the like gist of it, and especially if you're a neurodivergent and the sense of like always wanting to tell the truth. You know, you, it's, it's really easy to like find yourself pushing up against the like, well if I don't remember then I just won't write it because I want it to be true. Yeah. And I've definitely gotten stuck there in some places and had to, you know, get some counsel from other writers of like. As long as it's, it's kinda like the letter of the law principle, right? Mm-hmm. Like as long as the essence of what you're trying to communicate is true, then you're writing the truth, you know? Mm-hmm. You're, you're translating what the feel was of that conversation or the key elements that were communicated to you or that you took away from that conversation, and whether they actually said this or whether they actually said that, you know, you're still being truthful to your experience of it. In providing, you know, whatever sort of, uh, dialogue back conveys that. Yeah. It's one of the reasons why we started looking at doing, create the rules public, uh, like publishing company because we knew that there were so many barriers to, to people writing and getting their book published. And what we wanted to do is start creating, we're still in the process of, of it and creating all the stuff because it's really important for us to create those accessibility channels, right? So if somebody does, and when we look at disability, I'll just say this, there, there is a wide range of disability and not everybody is. Experiencing the same thing, even with a similar disability. Mm-hmm. And so what we wanna do is create the opportunity, the tools that allow people to adapt, to allow people to have access to those networks, to publishing their, their ideas and their stories. So if we're looking at someone who's unable to type, or we're looking at someone who's only an oral processor, or we're looking at somebody who only thinks in visuals, how do we pair them? How do we create the systems? And how do we create the community to get those ideas and those books out into the world? Because they're. They're so valuable, right? Yeah. We're missing out on so many great ideas and so many experiences because of the barriers that are in place to publishing right now. And so what we wanna try and do is remove that and start to step into that space where, and it's gonna be constantly evolving because somebody's gonna come to us and say, well, none of these tools work for us. Great. Cool. Now we get to create a new kind of adaptation. We wanna come at it with that and be able to say that we have the resources and the, and the, the funds and the finances to be able to say, yeah, okay, let's, let's see if we can make this accessible so that we can start getting diverse ideas out there so that we can start getting the, the words and the vision and the ideas and the imagination of people who haven't been able to do that before. And that's part of building a community too, these publications. And we're seeing a lot of, um, you know. I'll, I'll say private or indie publication, like public, uh, public publishing houses, I'll get the word right. Publishing houses coming out because of this. Right? Yeah. Because they've seen a particular barrier in the, in the traditional publishing industry. But we also know that self-publishing has its whole. Wide range of barriers as well. And so we're seeing more of the hybrid publishing houses. We're seeing more of the indie publishing houses coming through and saying, okay, how do we make this possible? How do we create the support systems of the people who know what they do? The PR managers, the book tour creators, the mm-hmm. You know, those skills are so highly specialized and it's fantastic.'cause now we compare them to authors who don't need to learn all of that in order to get their ideas and their visuals into the hands of the people who want to see and read them. Exactly, and you've highlighted a key part of a good community, which is that adaptability, right? It's in looking at who you have, who are showing up, and what their needs are, and how your community can, you know, bend or stretch in order to support those people. Because you know, I. It, it's, it's tough. And, and I know Stephanie and I have struggled with figuring out exactly how to structure a community that people are looking for, that people will engage in. And so far we've built one that, that worked for her and I, and whether it will work for other people that's kind of yet to be seen. Mm-hmm. But at the same time. Like until those people are there, we won't know what they need. Absolutely. Or how to structure it for them. Yep. You know, so we are our best sort of framework or target audience because we are the ones desperate for community. Um, not only did we try, did we start the process of creating community while still attending our local library writers group, but last summer it went away. And so there's not even a local. Source for community anymore, and that was such a valuable place to get feedback on really short, you know, sections of our stories or do some like writing prompts and different fun things with trying, you know, you know, uncommon verb choices. We would play this cool. Game. I call it a game. Like we did this exercise where you brainstorm verbs of a particular like occupation. Yeah. So I think one time I did like a dog groomer. Right? Okay. And you would like write all the verbs that a dog groomer would use. And then you have a totally different scenario and you try to use those verbs in like an atypical way. So instead of like, you know. Grooming the dog hair. Now you're grooming the lawn or you're, um, I don't know, like grooming the nail. You turn it into a baker. Yeah. And you're doing something, but you're using this, these other verbs and like these really creative ways and it just expands your mind. Um, and it's just a really fun way to play with words. Yeah. Um, I kinda went on a tangent there, but you know, just to say like, we lost that community, we lost that peace, and now we're. Attempting to create something for ourselves that hopefully others will be attracted to. And that's essentially what this whole podcast is. I mean, it's, we don't directly get to talk with all of our listeners, but I, I get to directly talk with all of our guests. Yeah. And that has been a great expansion of community for me. It's opened my mind to. A number of different influences and sources of inspiration and motivation, and I know that that's translating to those who listen regularly as well. I. I think what you said too is interesting is that when you started creating your community, you didn't know if it was gonna work for the, you know, people coming into it. And that's definitely the same challenge we had four years ago when we started the Catalyst. It was literally me in a virtual room just sitting there being like, hello. Hopefully people come in and now, four years later, now that we've had so many people come through as members, it has morphed and changed to. Something I would never even have been able to think of myself. Yes. And because we opened up the feedback loops because we said, Hey, what would make this even better? Our members contributed to it. The rooms that we have are, are inspired by, you know, ideas that they had. We have a cat purring for 25 minutes if somebody wants to go and listen to a cat per for 25 minutes. And do whatever they wanna work on, they can go into that. Well, that came from someone saying, oh, I really wish I could listen to a cat for, for like a Pomodoro clock. And I was like, I can build that for you. And so we did. And that's something that is generated. But even how our culture is and how we're very casual there, we'll often talk about anything from politics to our frustrations about trying to get our work done or our frustrations even with our family. That culture that was created was a part of everybody who was in the room. And so when people are trying to create a community, if you're thinking, oh, I wanna start a writer's community in my. In my, you know, my, whether it be in my per in person or virtual. One thing I will say is don't try to put so many rules around it. Don't try to put so many boundaries or expectations or outcomes in it before you start, because the people who are in the room are gonna help shape that. And again, we talk about belonging and helping people feel like they belong. Part of that is. When you give them the ability to help shape that, to help create that experience, you're going to have a better community. You're gonna have an actual community versus someone who is just always kind of directing it and hoping everybody else falls in line. You don't want that. And the writing, like there's so many ways to build a writing community like we've already just talked about. It could be that we just all get together and we're just writing in a room together and just feeling that body doubling in person and knowing that the person beside us is also writing, whether that's virtual or in person. Or you could have where you have the exercises, uh, you could have the, where you read out loud, we write for a spell, we read out loud, we get actual active feedback. You might have a combination of all of these where you rotate during those certain, um, weeks where you basically come together and do a certain thing and there's that expectation for that. But. How people share or how people give feedback. That can be really open to the people who are in the room. You might have a group of people who love just being really blunt, like, oh, that sucked, and, and you don't have any hurt feelings.'cause you're just like, yeah, okay, yeah it did. And then you work from it there. You might have some people who are like, that is a no-no. Right? We only give positive. We're like, this is what worked. This is what worked, here's how we make it better, and. Part of it is establishing that and knowing who's in the room with you. Mm-hmm. And that goes for these writing communities, because I think if we start to come at that saying like, okay, who's in the room? What do you want? What do you want out of this space? What can we do together? Now you're building that out and you won't know that until, you know, like people are like, well, how long will it take? Weeks, months. Yeah. Yeah. I'm, we're in our fourth year and still learning so much about what it means to be in community with people and we're, we'll continue to keep learning and knowing that you have the ability to keep changing and pivot and knowing maybe, maybe your group started out, we just got into a room, we started talking, and then one day someone said, can I share what I wrote? Can I share this paragraph? You know, like,'cause I feel like there's just not something right. And everyone's like, whew, okay, good. Yes. I need the break. Like 25 minutes was too long for us to focus. 10 minutes is great. Let's, now you've changed that. Right Now you're like, okay, we're gonna write in 10 minutes PERTs. Or whenever someone says, wait, this paragraph isn't working. And that's beautiful too, right? But everybody in the room kind of says, yeah, that works for me. Right? Yeah. And being able to listen and being able to say, no, that doesn't work for me. Or, yes, and, and guess what? You might have a couple groups where. This works here and this works there. And they're two, two separate things. And that's beautiful too. We have different workrooms. Some are quiet, completely silent. You don't talk. Some of'em are at any given time, somebody could be making noise and you know that, you know, and it's like a, it's a, mm-hmm. It's kind of understood that that's how we, we act in there. Being able to create that for writers and knowing their different styles and knowing how they, oh, what a, like that's, it's so beautiful. It's such an opportunity. It's. You know, and a lot of the writers I talk to, both in real life and guests that I've interviewed for the podcast that I know virtually, so many of them talk about ultimately finding a group of probably just two or three other writers that they really then do the workshopping with. Yeah. You know, like you go somewhere in a broader sphere to get some inspiration. I love going to a local writer's conference that's held here in Colorado once a year. I get a lot of inspiration from that, but it's. Massive. Right. Right. And it, there's kind of, at least I have this goal of finding my handful of people that, you know, each one maybe brings something different to the table. Maybe we write in different genres and therefore have different perspectives on things. Yeah. And I have seen over and over again, published authors talk about how that was pivotal in, in their writing process. Especially when you get, you know, further on in the editing process where you need those beta readers or you need that like. Actual concrete real feedback. And when you've already developed those relationships with those people, then you really have a deeper trust in what they're saying. They understand your story more, and so there's a little bit less filtering you have to do of the critique. Um, because they, they do have a deeper understanding of where you're going with your story and what kind of writer you are and what your voice sounds like. Yeah. Um, and so I think for me, like that's the ultimate objective is to find these maybe broader communities where I can source and look for those people, put out feelers for those people, but ultimately cultivate a much more close-knit bond with a handful that are in there kind of for the long run of the life of my, you know, writing journey for a particular book. I think it's everyone's dream to have, like Dorothy Parker's Algonquin round table or Tolkien's inklings, right? We're just like, we're just like, let's have a group of people that we can come to that we trust, that we know they're gonna tell us they're, we trust that they're gonna tell us when it sucks, and they're gonna trust when we tell that it's good. And being able to come together and build that really strong, long-term relationship with it. Like that's, that's, that's relationship goals right there. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we will include links to your community, all your social media and spaces within the show notes. And I mean, we could just talk forever about Yes. The, the benefits of community. I wonder if you'd be willing to just highlight, um, just one experience you've had in community that has like altered or changed, shifted the direction you were heading with the project. As we close out our episode Oh. Oh my goodness, so many. Um, you know, I think a part of it is that I, I think in our community, people will come to the table and kind of say, I have this like crazy idea. Is it possible? Mm-hmm. And like you just said, is that when you have a group of people that you trust and that you've built a relationship with, but they all come from all different kinds of genres or niches, they're able to come in and give you a little bit of a piece that maybe you didn't have before. And it, not every crazy idea is actual actually plausible. And so when you have that trust, when you have that community, you can actually come together. And so I've had so many create I I'm an idea generator. I literally am like, Hey, I thought this idea. And this community that we, that I have it, they will tell me, yes, that's a good idea. Or no, that is not a good idea. And being able to even have that focus, because I might have been, had an idea that I've been working on for a few weeks, and then I get a new idea and everybody who's a writer knows this. You either get an a new idea for a completely different pivot in the story, or you are like, I'm gonna start a new book. Mm-hmm. And this is what happens, right. Our brain hates finishing things. And so it's like, okay, I'm gonna just keep doing this and I'm gonna prolong the experience and the joy that I had in this initial, when you have a really good community, and this has happened to me so many times, they, they can say no, or, yeah. And how can I be a part of this? Or how can I help you get this done? And so I think, and it's not just one experience, it happens weekly for me, and it happens for weekly for the other members, is that we can come in and know that we're either gonna keep on track or we're gonna go on a grand adventure. And when, if we're going on that grand adventure, I've got people who are there with me and can help and can support me through the highs and lows of that. I think it, no matter what you do in life, whether it's writing, whether it's being in business, whatever, whatever you're doing, if you can have a community like that, that helps really pump up those good ideas when you have them and they're ready to go, and the kind that are like, is this an, is this an idea for now or an idea for later? Mm-hmm. Is the most valuable thing you can do for yourself. I love that. Thank you for leaving us with that inspiration today. Um, and thank you, listener for tuning in. Yeah. Leave your comments about what you value in community, what you wanna see in community, how you found community. We'd love to connect with you, and we'll see you next week. All right. It'll just. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. We hope you found inspiration, valuable tips, and connection to yourself as a writer. Thank you for sharing this episode with your writing friends and leaving us a review. The power of storytelling lies within each of us, and by supporting one another, we can amplify our voices and craft narratives that resonate with our audience. We're not just about words on a page. We're passionate about the craft, the process in building a supportive community. Become a part of our community by connecting with us using the links in the show description or join our weekly email newsletter for updates and a dose of inspiration straight to your inbox. I.