The Compassionate Pen

You've just found your writing tribe.

If you’re anything like me, you get strange looks when you tell people you are a writer and love to write. You love to read, and you’d rather buy books than clothes or jewelry any day of the week. You’re a collector of notebooks, journals, and pens. And to be perfectly honest, the sight of a blank page begging to be filled with your words fills you with joy and excitement. People think you have lost your mind when you tell them that books are your passion, whether writing or reading them.

For a long time, I was a lone ship sailing on a sea of words and pages. I didn’t find my writing tribe. I thought I had several times in the past, but it never panned out. There was jealousy and even plagiarism. I left those groups, jaded and unhappy.

I recently joined Facebook again after having left the site years before. I decided to do this because of Bible study groups and dare say, finding a writing group I could be a part of. Several months ago, I met Kristine Tucker online. A published author and writing coach, Kris offered three weeks of free coaching to anyone interested. I took her up on her offer because I knew there was always room for improvement and growth. Three weeks turned into several months and we continue to meet on Zoom once a week to discuss our favorite topic…writing.

Kris runs a writing group on Facebook called The Compassionate Pen. The sub-title of the group is “A Writing Group for New Writers”. However, anyone with any level of writing experience can join the group.

Each week, Kris sends out an e-mail entitled “Monday Metaphors”. This e-mail contains a whole lot of prompts that get your creative juices flowing. Within the group itself is a community of writers who are willing to share their work, advice, and goals with others. We had our first Zoom meeting as a group this week and introductions were made. I feel as if I have finally found my tribe. And it was years in the making.

I write about this group now because I know the difficulties that come with being a writer. You want people to read and review your work with honest criticism. You don’t want to hear platitudes from people who know you. And if people tell you that your writing sucks, you want to know why and what you can do to make it better. The Compassionate Pen offers this. Yes, in a compassionate way. We all want to help each other because we care.

Writing is hard work. It takes discipline, effort, determination, creativity, and lots of alone time. There are distractions, blocks, and other problems that affect us. I’ve been writing since I was nine years old. That’s a long time since I am way past the age of 50. I’ve had teachers in school who encouraged me and supported me. I’ve had a newspaper editor who believed in me so much that he gave me my first professional writing job when I was 17. I’ve had some mentors here and there and I’ve mentored people as well. I believe that writers do need other writers for support, encouragement, and honest feedback.

I’ve finally found my tribe and I couldn’t be happier or more blessed.

Won’t you join us?