Tuesday, November 17, 2009

I'm a Little Late But I'm Still Thankful.....



Real life is rearing it's head all over the place lately :) Yours truly is getting ready to move. I will try to keep up over here, but I may have to take a few weeks off as we get ready to move across the country. Well, "we" isn't really correct LOL My poor husband is off in PA already working and trying to find us a house while I am back in Utah packing up the house and trying desperately to let the kids "help" while preventing them from doing too much damage. :D

In any case, today on the thankful list - something I couldn't do without and wouldn't have gotten as far as I have without...writer's forums, groups, and websites. Most especially, Querytracker.net and RallyStorm.com.

Every close writer friend I have, including all my critique buddies, I have met through one of these sites. I tried a lot of writer's sites and forums - many had a lot of good information. Many had nice people who were glad to help a new writer learn the ropes. But the writers I met on Querytracker, and then Rallystorm, were beyond supportive. They took me under their wing and have become another family. They share my successes and failures with me. They cheer for me and support me. They shred my work and help me rebuild it.

I don't know what I would do without them. This is always the one piece of advice I give new writers. Find some writer friends. They know what you are going through. They understand the journey and the wonderful madness. I am so grateful for each and every one of my writer friends, and without wonderful sites like QT and RS, I never would have met them. (In a weird twist of fate, my closest real life writer friends, the ones who live just down the street...I also met them through QT :) We didn't even know we lived in the same town until we got to chatting on the QT forum one day :D What a crazy, awesome thing to happen) :D

Not only can you meet amazing people on these sites, but there is a ton of really good information. Help for query letters, critiques on a few pages, info on agents, agencies, and publishers, help on research, and answers to just about any question about writing and publishing that you can think of. If you are a writer, no matter where you are in your journey, just starting out or publishing your 50th book, I highly suggest finding a good writer group, forum, or website.

How about everyone else? Do you have any favorite writer sites? Where did you meet your writer friends?

5 comments:

Christine Fonseca said...

Those are my fav sites as well! Good luck with the move.

Natalie said...

I've never been on rallystorm, I'll have to check it out. I met my writers group through Absolute Write. It has tons of helpful information (the bewares and background checks section is a must read for writers who are querying).

Good luck with the move!

Stephanie Thornton said...

Good luck with the move! Curse real life for interrupting with blogging and writing!

Paul Greci said...

I've never been on rallystorm. I'll have to check it out. I got involved in a writers group through scbwi, and some manuscript exchange, too. Also, PNWA. And, I loved absolute write during the query process. Good luck with your move!

Jen said...

RallyStorm is a new one to me also. I'll have to check them out. I'm a member of QueryTracker but have yet to get involved with the community.

Good luck with the move!

Jen