The Magic of Community

Putting the social back into social media.

Over the weekend in Britain, there were trestle tables covered in Union Jack tablecloths, fairy cakes with pictures of the Queen and the flag sticking out the top and miles and miles of bunting. There were sandwiches cut into triangles, barbecues and thousands of cups of tea alongside scones with cream and jam.

There was laughter, conversation, hugs and handshakes - something that was hard to imagine happening eighteen months ago.

Whether we were watching parades, flypasts or the face of the youngest Royal on the television or sitting in the garden with family or arguing over the last scone we came together as a community.

Community. It’s such a powerful thing.

A couple of years ago, during the lockdown, I felt lonely. Not particularly lonely in real life. I had my friend and neighbour that I saw regularly for dog walks and chit chat. And another close friend in the next village who I also saw on dog walks. I had my husband and children. And FaceTime was used a lot.

But I felt creatively lonely.

Instagram, the platform I’d used for years and had made some wonderful connections on, was starting to change. People were getting political (as is their right, it just wasn’t for me), there was an incredible amount of noise and I felt the quieter connections were being lost.

I came off the app for about six months. This gave me clarity, and focus and I figured out my creative purpose. All brilliant for my writing and my fledgling mentoring business. But I missed the community.

When I returned to the app technological changes to the platform and the algorithm meant that it wasn’t the same. Fast forward a year or more and now I barely open the app. In their quest to make money, attract younger users, and sell advertising space the heart had been taken out of the platform. I likened it to a deserted city centre full of charity shops, bookies and takeaways… There were people there but very few who travelled for miles to come and visit for the experience.

This was one of the reasons why I set up The Confident Creative Club. Alongside wanting to help other women with their lack of creative confidence I needed other creatives to talk to.

Writing is fun, I love being alone at my desk with my coffee and I do enjoy my own company. But having a community to chat to through the posts on the website, after a live writing session on Zoom or in a dedicated ‘coffee chat’ has made a massive difference.

As Carla says on this Medium post I wrote about the group:

…the camaraderie and encouragement of our members has given me more than I can adequately express.

And Clare says,

That we move forward in these new ways together is brilliant and inspiring.

Having a community really does make a difference and it’s disappointing that Instagram, and before that, Facebook, have turned social media into anything but social.

But I cannot change these corporations. As my husband wisely told me during the pandemic I have to focus on my controllables.

So I’ve created this Substack. I’m hoping, in time, that this is a place where we can chat as a community. Where we can share experiences, resources and anecdotes.

Where we can come together and reduce our creative loneliness, where we can read and listen to other women’s experiences around writing and creativity, and where we realise that we are not alone.

We are not alone on this creative journey - at whatever point we’re at - and we’re not alone in feeling like a fraud, being scared of failure or success or procrastinating.

I’ve started this Substack now because it felt like the right time. My ideas are not fully formed, I’ve not planned everything out but I’m a big believer in not waiting for perfection before I start. If I did, it would never get off the ground.

You can read more about this project on the about page and the reasons why I called it The Red Fern in this post.

I do hope you are inspired to follow my journey with this project. Once I’ve got to grips with it all I’ll aim to write this free newsletter at least once a month and, once I’ve worked out the tech, I’ll share an interview with another writer and creative about confidence and creativity once a month, too.

As this is a reader-supported project there will, eventually, be paid subscriber options but this will be for extra content and not for the newsletter itself which will always remain free.