**WARNING: This is a long one. And also, I get kind of sappy. So, please, bear with me. **

“The word “community” is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”)” – Wikipedia

Yesterday, the inestimable Jenny Hudock blogged about the first six weeks of the Creative Alliance. TCA is a great bunch of people, and the things the group has managed to do together in that fairly short period of time is pretty impressive. And it’s just the beginning!

What her blog really called to mind for me were all the things the various online communities I belong to, or have belonged to, have given me. When I was very little, we had a computer that I’m pretty sure we only used to play Pong. And maybe Frogger, but I think that was too advanced for my age at the time. I remember being more interested in painting and climbing trees and various other pursuits that intrigued my 7 year old mind.

Several years later, when I was maybe 14, my father got a used HP (I think from someone who he’d done some construction for) and we got AOL. That would have been around 1995. I did the whole chat room thing, and had fun with it. I even met someone that I had met online IRL! (No horror stories about axe murders here, but that’s all I say about that.) A few of my friends had the internet at that point, and I knew a couple of people who were really into being online… but it still wasn’t something we spent a lot of time doing or talking about, on the whole.

It was a couple years after that, when I returned from my all too brief sojourn to Niagara University, that I dove completely into the vast world wide web. I was still with AOL then, still doing the chat room thing, and even met several more people from cyberspace in the meatspace (I got this term from the hilarious Chris Hardwick, of the Nerdist podcast, and I love it). It was around this time that I started looking for writer’s groups online.

In high school I had had my English teachers and the people of Literary Magazine (I was a member in junior high, and all four years of high school as well) to talk about writing with, and to share my work with. In college (for the year I was there) I had a poetry circle I went to. But after that, I didn’t have a local group of peers to share my writing with, and be creative with. And for most writers, at least from what I’ve witnessed, and for me in particular, interacting with other imaginative people and sharing work helps keep those delicious creative juices flowing.

So it began with Triggerstreet. I had seen an interview with Kevin Spacey (who I’ve always had just a little crush on… I think it’s the dimples) where he mentioned starting this website for screenwriters and filmmakers, and I thought ‘Gee that sounds interesting!’ So when the site launched, I joined up and starting reading the scripts people were posting. Some were great, some were good, and some were all kinds of terrible. But something about the ease and approachability of it all made me think I could do it.

So I took a random thing I’d written in high school, mostly for the amusement of me and my friends, and turned it into a screenplay. I wrote it in Word, because I didn’t have any screenwriting software back then, and the formatting was kind of off (though not too bad, considering). And I just slapped it up on Triggerstreet, no beta readers or anything. Some of the reviews I got were just mean, but those were the minority. Many were very helpful in their critiques, and some were incredibly encouraging, despite what was likely a very bad first draft. I know I broke quite a few of the rules of screenwriting. But with the feedback that I got, I went and re-wrote it. And reposted it. And received feedback. And re-wrote. And re-posted. Repeat.

The people there were really great, and when they set up forums I started getting to know some of the people whose work I admired. I made some really good friends with some really talented people. I’m still a member at Triggerstreet, though I haven’t been active in years. I don’t know how the site may have changed, since I don’t spend time there. But if you’re interesting in screenwriting or short filmmaking I’d say check it out. The people were always very cool, and at the very least you get free access to thousands of scripts and short films and it can help you learn what works and what doesn’t in those arenas.

I have since lost contact with many of the people I became friends with there (though not all of them). And I miss them, even the ones who I knew only by a first name, or a screen name. Sabine, Jonathan, George, Ron, Austin, Jolene, PJ… wherever you are, I hope you’re well and wish I could find you! Through that site, and those amazing people, not only did my work get better and my ability increase, but I learned about other sites and communities. A sort of domino effect took place.

From Triggerstreet, I joined Zoetrope, and a Yahoo writing group that has since petered out but was a great help to me. It was in the forums on TS that I followed someone’s link to a blog about horror films. In that blog was a link to a list of horror websites. And on that list was a link to a forum of fellow horror fans. There weren’t many members. The site was fairly new and there were maybe 25 people there when I signed up. Even with the small group I was a little intimidated about jumping into discussions at first. Some of the people there had come over from yet another site, and had known each other there for years. So I was a smidgen shy. But about a week after I signed up, another member signed up and since he was new now, I felt totally comfortable talking to him. His screen name was Deanrockon.

I became really good friends with Deanrockon and several other people on that site. In fact, about seven months after our first online hello, Dean and I decided to meet in person. About three months after that, I packed my bags in NY and he came to move me down to Georgia with him. On our way, we stopped at NJ’s Chiller Theatre convention and met some of the other awesome people we’d only known as screen names until then.

That was in 2004. Since then, Dean and I got married (it’ll be 4 years in November). My maid of honor was a woman who has become a sister to me… and one I met in person for the first time at that Chiller. In 2006, when Dread Central broke from that other site, I went happily with them and have enjoyed every minute of working with them and writing reviews and all the other coolness that comes with being able to write about my favorite genre.

And through them, and the people I’ve met there since then, I’ve learned about other communities. Like the podcasting community. And though we’ve only just become a part of this amazing community, it’s already been incredibly rewarding. I’m getting to know wonderful people like James and Jenny, my other fellow TCA members, and a bunch of other crazy talented and fun people. I’m getting to share my work, which I love, and getting to share in theirs.

The online community as a whole, and the specific communities I’ve mentioned above, has given me so much already. And I am eternally thankful and grateful for that. My love for and belief in this community is part of what led me to suggest Dean and I try this crazy thing we’re trying. I’m counting on this community I’m proud to be a part of to help us fund Blood & Dust, to help us realize this dream we have. And it’s a scary prospect, to rely on a vast community of people who I may never see face to face (although I sincerely hope that’s not the case). But I’ve seen what we can do. And I have faith.

That definition I started this whole thing off with? The Latin has the right of it. This togetherness is a gift. I want to keep giving. I hope you do too.

XXX ~M