You've Got a Friend

Last week I taught a writing and editing workshop to colleagues as part of my company’s in-house university. Nine young women attended. All of their daily workspaces are low-walled cubicles no more than 50 feet away from one another. Despite this daily proximity, and the opportunity that affords to share their work, brainstorm, commiserate, create compacts to proofread one another’s work, act as quality control counselors, ask questions, and a million other things, most of them didn’t even know one another. They’d seen each other in the hall or ladies room, but they’d never met. It wasn’t until we went around the room introducing ourselves that they started to quickly realize how many experiences and frustrations they share when it comes to writing. “That happens to me, too,” one said. “Oh, God, that’s exactly how I feel.” One woman said she's "the worst proofreader." Another said she thinks she's pretty good and, even better, she loves doing it. "It's satisfying," she said. They sit about 12 feet away from one another. A perfect fit, they'd never met before this day. This was interesting to me because, as the writer Toni Cade Bambara said, “it's a dismally lonely business, writing.” I think if there’s opportunity to make writing a less lonely experience writers should grab it (Joseph Heller, who wrote Catch-22, said, “Every writer I know has trouble writing”). Introduce yourself to colleagues, make friends, and talk about your writing. Share your experiences. Read one another’s work. Offer your opinions gently and ask for the opinions of others loudly. Seek out mentors, work with the guy down the hall who everyone knows is a good writer, or with the admin who’s an eagle-eyed proofreader. If you’re lucky enough to work for a company that has an editorial services department filled with writers and editors, don’t be shy. Work with them and learn from them. Take advantage of all those people and personalities with whom you come into contact every day. Don’t make writing a lonely experience – share it with others and your writing will bloom.

Comments

[Tim]

As a writer, I'm so fortunate. You're right next door! What a wonderful world we live in!