I’m one of the newest members here at Fictorians, so it seemed fitting that after David’s “Back to Basics” 500th post, I should be the one to kick off our next 500.  But how does one do a second “first” post for a blog like this?  As it happens, our very first post ever covers the exact topic that I think makes this blog special. On March 30th, 2011, Nancy DiMauro published the inaugural Fictorians post entitled “The Benefits of Holding Hands.” It’s not a long post, just 376 words, but I think it perfectly encapsulates the core of what we’re about here at Fictorians. Go check it out for yourself. Nancy knocked it out of the park on the first try. Fictorians was founded on the premise of writers helping other writers. We have to; it’s how we were taught. We support one another, challenge one another, inspire one another. And that’s how it should be. To every writer out there: we’re all in this together and we’ll continue to grow the most as writers together.

It’s a neat group of people that make up the Fictorians.  We met one another at various installments of Superstars Writing Seminar. But as David touched on yesterday, in lots of ways we couldn’t be more different. In fact, if there’s one thing that surprised me when I attended Superstars, it’s that there’s no one “type” when it comes to a writer. We have different backgrounds, different beliefs, different interests. We come from different countries, we have different skills and we bring different things to the table. But there’s one thing that binds us together not just as writers but as Fictorians: we are bound and determined to succeed in writing and we are both eager and excited to share the things we learn, either on our own or from one another, with anyone who will listen. We plan to grow our ranks further in the coming months and bring even more content to our readers.  It means a lot to us to be able to share what we’ve learned, and we hope it helps other writers overcome the hurdles we all face from time to time.

I’d like to close this post by extending our thanks. Each month we are assisted by a group of very talented guest bloggers, from fellow aspiring writers all the way up to big names in the writing world. These guest posts provide us with a valuable injection of fresh ideas and perspectives as well as new areas of expertise. They make sure we don’t become too insular or set in our ways (and the fact that they shoulder some of the load of generating content is nice too). The bottom line is they are a tremendous boon to the site and we are very thankful for their time and their enthusiasm. Take a bow, guest bloggers! And finally, like the proverbial tree falling in an empty forest, this blog could not exist without its readers, the people who check in with us day after day and hopefully take something valuable away when they go. A great big thank you goes out to everyone who reads this blog! You are ultimately what makes this all possible, and if you keep reading, we’ll keep writing! Here’s to another 500 posts and beyond! Come, hear us roar!