The Loft Writing Network: Turning Your Imagined Readers into Real Ones
I’ve said before that all writing is conversation. It’s words on paper, but those words are meant to be read. They are only activated when someone else perceives them, interprets them, dances them to life in their secret imagination. Language is a shared tool—we collaborate to create meaning. Our stories are written in response to something else, using the meaning created by that something else, maybe a different story or maybe an experience, and our stories reach out into the community with the hope that they will be answered. A reader might react in their head or in the world. It might inspire another story.
That’s why it’s strange that so much of our writing is done in solitude. It may eventually reach an editor or—gasp!—an audience, but not for a long time. In the early stages of writing, even if we’re typing away beside our sleeping baby (Ha! Mine never slept), or surrounded by the lively chatter of a coffee shop, we tunnel into the world on the screen and type our words silently. We have to imagine the reader. And because publishing is a long, uncertain path, we might have to imagine for a very long time.
And, yeah, we can do that. Our imaginations are strong!
But it’s easier, and a lot more fun, if we can write in community with other writers, if we can share tips, strategies, commiseration—and turn some of those writers into actual readers—not imagined but real—of our work. For feedback, or support, and also for joy!
Because lonely as writing can feel, it really is a social act. We write to connect with readers.
The Loft Writing Network is an online writing community designed for conversation. It’s a space to hang out with other writers—sometimes asynchronously offering encouragement and advice, sometimes scribbling side-by-side through the Zoom screen, and sometimes sharing and discussing new work.
I’m most excited about the feedback—the workshops as conversation. (You can see me talk about this in some awkward videos if you end up joining.)
I really believe that the best way to understand your own writing and how readers connect with it is not by shutting up while a bunch of strangers hunt down flaws (gag rule, bleh) or being lectured (certain styles of writing classes, not the worst—but not the best either) or by strictly adhering to some famous writer’s “rules” (there are no rules—just tools!). I think it’s by talking it all through with people you trust, asking questions, and guiding the conversation so that you get the most helpful suggestions. These real-world conversations about how your words and sentences and commas are operating can help you adjust the later conversations your reader will have with the work in their head.
And I think a fantastic way to improve your writing more generally (better than those lectures, better than those “rules”) is to participate in conversations about other writers’ works. Giving feedback always helps you to interrogate your own taste and discover new craft tools. But participating in generative conversations with other writers can illuminate the different ways readers connect with your work—that bigger conversation I keep talking about.
This can happen in person, but it can also happen online. It can happen in live video calls or asynchronously. The most important thing is that it is done in real community, and—just like all writing—as conversation.
The Loft Writing Network is LIVE! Register now.
💙 Connect (free): stay in the loop, meet other Lofties, ask for advice, and discover valuable publishing resources.
🧡 Connect+ ($12/mo): get genre-specific feedback sessions, an accountability hub, weekly challenges, writing sprints, and a shared space for works in progress.