Winning first place in this year’s Story Circle Network’s Life Writing Contest with my story, “Education Interrupted,” was such an honor. I joined Story Circle Network in 2018, and as a member I’ve submitted stories for the Real Women Write anthologies, a story or two for the Journal, and I joined one of SCN’s e-circle writing groups, where women come together to write in a private email forum.
My group, e-circle-6, writes once a month to a prompt selected by one of the members. The group has been my lifeline to other women writers, where every subject stemming from life has been discussed, inspired by everyday occurrences and past day experiences. The circle group encourages a close social camaraderie amongst its members through writing. It doesn’t get better than that. While I might be considered one of the newer members at three or four years, many members of e-circle-6 have known each other for a decade or longer through sharing their writing.
Trust develops amongst women as our knowledge of each other grows over time which allows us to appreciate inside jokes and long-running stories in our lives as the chapters mount month after month. We “get” each other’s humor and relate to each other’s sorrows. We are diverse, some with college, and some without. Some younger, some older. Some with children and active families, and some without. It matters not because we have one very important thing in common: love for the written word.
Sometimes I marvel at how far I’ve come in my writing over the past five years, thanks to the amazing women who submit their stories to Story Circle Network, and also to those in the organization who edit our work with light hands.
I have great appreciation for my e-circle experiences and for all those who have inspired and guided me along on this journey we call “writing.” Thank you Story Circle Network.
Photo by Lucas Blazek on Unsplash
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