Like bananas, you’ll find most successful writers in bunches. I know you’ve heard writing is a solitary task. That’s true. Sometimes creativity is a battle better fought alone. Who wants to be around us when we’re pacing the floor, agonizing over whether to write our Great American Novel in first or third person, past or present tense? But without the occasional support of other writers we’d go stark-raving mad and probably self-destruct. We need to know there are more of us struggling out there. We need to find the rest of our bunch.

I personally belong to a number of organizations/critique groups, each one helping me hold my head above water. The Wisconsin Writers Association (“WWA”) and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (“WFOP”) offer conferences and publish regular newsletters where we can share our accomplishments. They also offer creative publications where we can showcase our work: Creative Wisconsin for WWA and the annual calendar for WFOP. I’ve been included in both.

Then there’s the Romance Writers of America (“RWA”), the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America (“WisRWA”), and our local WisRWA chapter in Chippewa Falls. They also offer conferences and news about members, as well as industry updates and the opportunity to compete for prizes for both published and unpublished works.

If it’s artistic feedback I seek, I belong to two wonderful critique groups. Locally there’s the Northern Lakes Writers Guild in Amery. While they’re open to any form of writing, I predominantly avail upon their expertise for my poetry. The group leader is a wonderful published poet and I’ve grown tremendously under his guidance. For fiction, I always return to a group of women I met with monthly for almost thirty years while living in Rochester, New York. This year they’ve provided me with sometimes brutally honest but always insightful comments as I’ve bombarded them with chapter after chapter of my historical romance “Mary Bishop”, and my book is better for it.

I don’t know where I’d be right now if I didn’t have my fellow bananas to periodically remind me that I’m not alone, and that not every word that flows from my brain onto paper is the word of God etched in stone. No matter how beautiful and inspired, sometimes they just have to go…thanks to my bunch.

Disney. A name synonymous with wonder, magic, and imagination. Disney. A place that promises “When you wish upon a star / Makes no difference who you are / Anything your heart desires / Will come to you … When you wish upon a star / Your dreams come true.”

Disney. A magical world where little girls dress like princesses, no matter how hot the weather. Disney. A time machine where grown women forget about their jobs, don mouse ears, and join their girlfriends for a day transported back to their childhood.

Isn’t that the goal of all writers? Walt Disney does not hold the rights to creativity. (Neither does Steven Spielberg, for that matter.) They’re just showing us how to achieve it, which path to follow; the path of hard work and perseverance. The path of “Believe” and it will happen. Every day when we sit at our keyboards we have the chance to create new worlds, characters that will capture the imagination of our readers.

Do you wish upon a star? Does your heart desire the dream? Then go for it because when you wish upon a star your dreams come true. Walt Disney said so.

Firsts: first day of school, first love, first kiss, first child/grandchild, and the list goes on. Firsts are an important part of our lives. For me, this is my first blog, and it follows the completion of my first novel draft. . .and, hopefully, my first published book. But that can’t happen until I finish numerous rounds of revisions. <groans of agony>

So, hang on tight as we take this journey together. Oh, and please be patient as I figure out how to use such things as widgets. I will conquer this, too!