Feedback Friday

Over to you!

Hello writers!

I’m very excited to see some new people here this week! I thought I’d take a minute to go over some of my core convictions in founding the Finding Your Voice community and workshops.

First, I believe that if you want to be a writer, you are a writer. And, similarly, if you want to be here, then you belong here! I know imposter syndrome can be especially strong among creatives, and so many people have told me, “I’d like to sign up for a writing workshop, or the community, but I’m not a real writer.” I’m actually starting to think that the one true sign of a real writer is someone who is worried they’re not a real writer. Non-writers don’t tend to spend a lot of time worrying about whether they’re writers, you know?

Second, I believe that not only do we need to write, to tell our stories, to express ourselves creatively, to make art from our experiences, but that the world needs to hear our stories. As folks who are autistic, ADHD, or who struggle with depression or other mental illness, we have stories that others need to hear. And our stories are worth reading.

And, third, I believe that we do our best writing in supportive, empathetic community. I’ve been in too many writing classes where the feedback is mostly negative—here’s what’s wrong with what you wrote—and it never helped me very much, either in the quality of my writing or in pushing forward in continuing to write. So in the Finding Your Voice writing workshops, and here in this community, I’ve tried to create a space where we can focus on what is already strong and good in each other’s stories, finding the energy and the excitement and drawing attention to that. And I’ve put the posts where we share our work behind a paywall, so only comped or paying members of the community can read your work and comment on it. So you can know that what you share is being read only by other writers with the same commitment to providing support and encouragement.

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Okay, on to Feedback Friday!

On Feedback Fridays you can share what you wrote in response to this week’s prompt, a previous week’s prompt, or anything else you’ve been working on.

If you missed it, here’s this week’s prompt about contentment:

Feedback Fridays, along with the comments, are behind a paywall, to protect you and your work, and support me and my work! But, as always, everyone gets a free month’s upgrade when you subscribe, and if you need more please feel free to ask.