by Alycia W. Morales @AlyciaMorales

Everyone talks about the importance of a critique group and how wonderful it is for improving your writing and getting feedback. That is solid advice, but there’s something else I’d like you to consider:

Find yourself at least one, if not two or three or five writers who you enjoy spending time with and befriend them. I have done that, and it’s been one of the highlights of my writing career.

Ten reasons I recommend befriending a few writers:

1. Writers understand what it’s like trying to juggle family life, a day job, and finding time to work on their craft.

When life is blowing up around you, there’s someone you can talk to who gets it.

2. Experienced writers have answers to your spouse’s or family members’ questions.

“When will you start making enough money to live on?” My friends have been instrumental in settling my husband’s curiosities. Which in turn helps me move forward in my pursuit of a published novel.

3. Writers get each other.

My writing friends understand me as a creative person. They know what it’s like to face a blank page and the joy of a box of books showing up at the front door. Just like I don’t fully understand the world of my husband’s construction engineering life, he doesn’t always get mine. But my writer friends do, and they can mourn and celebrate with me.

4. Writing friends are great at providing accountability.

How many pages or words have you written today? Where are you in your story? Did you remember to make that blog post? Are you going to that conference? They’re wonderful at asking the important questions and then encouraging us to move forward when we want to stall out.

5. They also understand needing a break.

They get that you need to put your rough draft in the drawer for a week and unwind your brain while you prepare to rewrite. That you need a day trip to the beach or the mountains so you can recharge your creativity. And they also know you aren’t sitting around putting your feet up and doing nothing.

6. Writing friends are great at helping you improve your craft.

My friends don’t just tell me what’s wrong with my manuscript. They help me fix it, whether through instructing me on craft, constructive critique, or brainstorming when I’m stuck on a development in my story.

7. They’re fun to travel with.

When you’re attending the same conferences, they’re the ones next to you on the plane or in the car. They’re the ones you split your hotel fees with. For me, it’s always more enjoyable to experience conferences and retreats alongside my friends than with complete strangers.

8. You don’t have to work alone anymore.

When we’re working on our stories, we tend to seclude ourselves and hunker down in front of our laptop screens. One of the things my friends and I do is get together at a house or the local coffee shop and sit across from each other with our laptops open. This helps, because if we get stuck, we have someone in the immediate vicinity to bounce an idea off.

9. Fellowship.

My friends and I will occasionally get our families together for dinner. The kids will then go off to do their thing while the adults will congregate around a board game or card deck. We have so many laughs during these times. It’s nice to have a family of writers who support each other in work and in life.

10. Prayer support.

Whenever one of us is ill, struggling with rejection, celebrating achievements, or dealing with family life, we have a group of people who are ready to war for us in prayer. Nothing beats that.

Do you have a writer or two in mind who you’d love to spend quality time with? Why not give them a call today? What could you add to this list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Alycia Morales is a freelance editor and writer. Her writing has been in Thriving Family magazine, Splickety Love, and several compilation books. Her editing clients have won several awards for their manuscripts, including finalist in the Selah Award. She is also a conference manager and the blog editor for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.

When she isn’t busy hanging out with her writing friends, her husband, and her four children, Alycia enjoys reading, watching TV, hiking, and crafting.

Follow Alycia at her blogs, Life.Inspired. and The Write Editing. She can also be found on Instagram and Pinterest.