Contributing to Your Creative Community
In Creative Calling, author and photographer, Chase Jarvis claims one of the pillars to curate a fulfilling creative life is to contribute to the community where you want to belong. I understood this intuitively, but I didn't see the benefits as clear as I thought I had until I was offered a chance to mentor for Write of Passage, a writing class taught by David Perell.
We just kicked off our first week, but so far, here are some benefits I see more clearly now, that are also wonderfully written and suggested by Jarvis in his book:
Learning from those that are a few steps ahead of you
By giving back and offering value to the WoP community, I'm able to shadow and learn from those that have more success in writing and blogging than I have, like David and my fellow co-mentors. And, by receiving advice from those that are a few steps ahead of me, their information seems more relatable and applicable. And my own writing goals seem more attainable.
While I love Steven King and his writing craft book, On Writing, I find that even my fiction writing improves more when I’m learning from the writers that have just a bit more success than I have, and not the outlandish success of a bestselling author.
By giving back to your community, you also have an easier time getting feedback on your creative projects. It makes it a lot easier for someone to offer their advice, particularly on a more frequent basis, if they see that you’re a part of something they’re passionate about and have a stake in.
Networking
Contributing to your community also allows you to create a network that could be beneficial to you in the future. You want to ensure the longevity of your career. The support and empathy of people who have been in similar situations can help you to sustain and keep you on a creative career path.
There has been a lot of times, where I’ve wanted to give up on my current novel and blog, and really, writing in general. Having friends who are also writers that I can go to when I’m struggling makes it easier to keep going. It’s been an overwhelming yet inspiring time meeting other writers who have similar interests and goals. And, I think that will push us to continue writing.
And, a decent chunk of having a creative career is your ability to continue through the sludge of rejection and failure. Opening yourself to others who are part of your creative community can help with the bad times, when you’re receiving rejection emails or when there’s no one reading or taking a look at your work.
The good karma can’t hurt.
Giving your time (your most valuable resource) to any community or topic you want to be involved in, always seems to reap selfish benefits. Whether it’s advice or making friends, it’s usually a win-win.
And relatedly, I joined the 7-day Tony Robbins Comeback Challenge on Facebook last week, among some and the self-improvement guru said something along similar lines. He remarked on giving more value than people expect, but also how there’s true joy and fulfillment when you look outside of yourself.
There’s meaning to giving back.
Ways to contribute to your creative community
For a while, I intuitively understood that giving back would have positive effects on my life, but the idea of putting into practice was the hard part. I felt pretty lost in terms of how I could contribute. So, here a few ways that I found giving back to the writing community over the last few years:
Volunteering at writing classes
Volunteering at writing conferences
Offering feedback (not a writing swap, just one-sided feedback on their project)
Blogging: This is kind of cliché but putting your thoughts and ideas out there, and not keeping them for yourself seems helpful
Attending writing/creative events like book talks and launches
But whether it’s writing, design, photography, or even DIY, the important thing is to get involved and invest in your creative community.
