Signing the Pirate Code (or Why It's Easier Not to Go It Alone)

As the newest hand on deck, I wanted to give a hearty ahoy to my fellow wenches and the few lads who may also be lurking about.

I’ve been writing oh, forever. Like many other aspiring authors, my first stories were written in elementary school and I think I have wanted to write a romance novel since then. Yet, I didn’t start getting serious about it until Fanlit last year. And, while I only did Fanlit for a couple of weeks due to the imminent delivery of my little pirate, I walked away from the whole experience thinking, “You know, I’m not the only aspiring author out there wracked with anxiety about my writing.”

This epiphany led me to blog after blog, website after website. I ended up meeting the most extraordinary women (and the occasional fellow). These cronies are people who share my goals and dreams as well as my angst and struggles.

Somehow, writing feels easier knowing that they are doing it all with me.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. It isn’t REALLY easier. I still sit in front of my laptop feeling like I’m going cross-eyed, like there are no words left in my brain, and believing to the depths of my soul that I’m churning out complete garbage. But, then I come online and my fellow writing wenches tell me that I, in fact, will be able to see again tomorrow, that there really are words left inside me, and that only some of the stuff I’m writing is utter garbage and the rest only smells a little.

And it’s better. I believe them and I keep going.

Like the pirates of old, we wenches here aboard the RWR have agreed to a sort of Pirate Code for ourselves. However, unlike the Articles of Agreement of those days stipulating how booty be divided and how discipline and compensation for injury should be ferreted out, our code is to share our experiences of writing, ferret out encouragement liberally, and to scratch, kick, or crawl our way to publishing success. Of course, this is a strictly unwritten, without the threat of bodily harm, kind of code. Except when Cap’n’s in her cups then she gets a bit feisty with the local boys, but we won’t talk about that right now.

I think it feels better having safety in numbers as we conquer the rough seas of unpublished uncertainty together.

What makes you keep going, even when you feel like you’ve hit your limit, whether in writing or anything else? Who are your biggest supporters? What are the best things you’ve found about the writing community online? And finally, if you’re lurking out there, let your voice be heard! There’s plenty of room aboard the ship for others who accept the code.