M.L. Rio on Why You Don’t Have to Write Alone

Ask any writer the one thing they would wish for, and you’re likely to get similar answers. Their first book deal, the time to focus on a full-time writing life, an endless supply of new ideas, a movie adaptation that roars through box offices around the world...

But if we take the wish level down a notch, it’s often much simpler things that can have the biggest impact on a writer’s life. Someone who’ll listen to you on the days you don’t believe in yourself, for example. Fellow writers who know exactly how it feels when you realize you’re going to have to do a rewrite. Friends who volunteer to be your first readers, eager to support every stage of your writing journey.

And sometimes, all we really want is someone to place a steaming cup of hot tea or coffee in front of us as our fingers fly across the keyboard (or we stare blankly at the monitor).

On the blog today, we’re pleased to welcome mystery author M.L. Rio, who generously shares a personal account of how her own support system stepped up when she fell into a tricky situation that complicated her writing practice.

No writer ever really wants to stop writing, but as M.L. shares, life can (and inevitably does) get in the way. It’s those times when the people around us—whether that's friends, family, other authors, or our online community—can raise us up so the words can keep on coming.

M.L. Rio is the internationally bestselling author of If We Were Villains and the USA Today bestselling Graveyard Shift. Her latest novel, the highly anticipated Hot Wax, was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2025. M.L. recently joined us for a live writing workshop all about storytelling, and we were so thrilled for her to share her writing advice with us.

Over to M.L...

2023 was the first year in my writing career that I could even consider writing as a full-time job, and I had no illusions about how unusual and probably unsustainable this would be in the long term. Most writers never make enough from writing to live on, and because writers are paid in lump sums and royalties, which can be difficult (if not impossible) to predict and plan around, there’s always a degree of precarity. Most people have day jobs and side hustles. Every little bit helps, especially when you become your own employer and have to cover the cost of everything yourself, from office supplies to health insurance.

Before I moved to writing full-time, I worked in academia, which is not exactly an embarrassment of riches unless you’re tenured or a football coach making more than 40 graduate students combined (really). Before that, I had four minimum-wage jobs at the same time and still never had more than a couple hundred dollars in my bank account. I’m no stranger to living on a shoestring and I err on the side of frugality out of habit.

The more jarring adjustment in my transition from part- to full-time writer was the sudden vacuum of community. I no longer had cohorts, no longer had students, no longer had colleagues. When you’re self-employed, you’re your own boss, your own business office, your own IT, your own HR. The buck stops with you.

In many ways, this came as a huge relief. I was no longer losing hours of the day to meetings that could have been emails; no longer beholden to somebody else’s budget, somebody else’s payroll, somebody else’s agenda. I became the master of my time for the first time in a long time, and for the most part, I love it.

I’ve always been self-disciplined and self-directed and generally incapable of delegating anything. Most writers who have any success in the industry have this independent streak, partly because there’s no getting a book published if you can’t get it written. You can’t just be the talent—you have to be your own project manager, too.

But even the creative side of creative writing tends toward the solitary.

It’s all too easy to find yourself writing alone

There are always workshops and book clubs and meetups and forums, but at the end of the day, nobody can write your book but you. Unlike acting, music, and dance, which often or always involve collaboration with other artists, writing is a lonely medium.

You can’t just be the talent—you have to be your own project manager, too. But even the creative side of creative writing tends toward the solitary.
—M.L. Rio

There are, of course, other people in your professional orbit—no book comes into being without agents, editors, designers, marketing, publicity, accounting, and so on and so forth. You’ll often hear published authors talk about their “team,” which includes all of these people. However, they may never meet them or interact only via email or through their agent. Publishing is a collaborative effort, but always once removed.

And publishing can only happen after the writing part. Agents and editors may offer some input on first drafts or fresh ideas, but the writing part of the writing process usually occurs in isolation. Every writer is different, but most I’ve met are introverted. Many were weird, withdrawn children whose friends were mostly imaginary. We’re oddballs and daydreamers who need long stretches of uninterrupted time to weave stories in our heads and then transmute them into text.

For such peculiar minds, solitude can be a precious commodity. But too much solitude can start to feel like alienation, like you’re losing your foothold in the real world.

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The value of a writing community

One of the hardest parts of the writer’s life is how difficult it can be to make friends with other writers. It’s not a social activity; there’s no team-building, no office birthday parties, no work wives. You cling to the other writers you do befriend, desperate to commiserate and compare notes with someone who “gets it.”

These people are invaluable. But in much the same way that I’ve been trying to embrace a more holistic view of “writing” lately, the transition to writing full-time has also reframed the way I think about creative community.

In the summer of 2023, the long research road trip I had planned was unceremoniously cut short by a shattered heel and a subtalar joint fracture, two weeks before I was supposed to move out of a house 1,300 miles away from where the accident happened. I had nowhere to go after that, because I was supposed to be traveling while writing and researching on the road.

What should have been a year of self-determined, creative adventure was suddenly reduced to an uncertain period of painful convalescence. Now, pain I could deal with. What was much harder for me was the catastrophic loss of independence. On crutches, I could not carry a suitcase or even a cup of coffee by myself. My world had radically shrunk, just when it was supposed to be expanding. It’s difficult to articulate quite how much this hurt psychologically.

Finding (and leaning on) your people

Such a serious injury forced me out of my solitary, self-reliant comfort zone in a big way. I had no choice but to ask for help, to call in favors, to lean on anyone and everyone with a shoulder to spare.

People drove me across the country, packed boxes, dropped off donations, moved my furniture, took me to the doctor, brought me groceries, washed my hair, walked my dog, made me coffee, and gave me a hand to squeeze when the pain was so bad I couldn’t breathe. They let me dump boxes of books in their living rooms, made room for me in their homes, took me in like a stray dog, and took better care of me than I’ve ever taken of myself.

All this was extremely humbling. I’d had an absolutely rotten run of luck, but I was also surrounded by generous, big-hearted humans who not only helped me move house and start healing, but also made it possible for me to keep writing, in spite of everything.

They loaded and unloaded books and office supplies; they drove me to events; they offered me time and space to work. Without this support system I didn’t know I had or needed, I would have been forced to abandon my book and kiss the full-time writing dream goodbye.

Every writer is different, but most I’ve met are introverted... We’re oddballs and daydreamers who need long stretches of uninterrupted time to weave stories in our heads and then transmute them into text. For such peculiar minds, solitude can be a precious commodity. But too much solitude can start to feel like alienation, like you’re losing your foothold in the real world.
—M.L. Rio

Don’t write alone

Which brings me to the real point of this post, which is that “community” in the creative sense of the term is, like “writing,” a much wider umbrella than you might realize.

Writer friends are hard to find, but that’s just one component of your community. There’s everyone else you work with in the industry, all the people who put their heads together to make a book a reality. Then there’s everyone else outside the business—the people who sustain you and your work in less obvious but even more impactful ways.

The ones who take you to movies or museums or the doctor or the grocery store. The ones who listen to you bitch and moan about the hard parts of the business. The ones who celebrate your achievements and reassure you when your confidence flags. The ones who can critique your work and the ones who know when to make you take a break. The ones who let you snuggle their dog when yours is far away and you need some fuzz therapy. The ones you can talk art and craft and life with late into the night.

I think this is why I tend to write ensemble stories, why everything I do is defined by group dynamics.

People make a life worth living, art worth making. Writing may be solitary sometimes, but you can’t do it alone.

Our online community

Our huge thanks go to M.L. Rio for sharing this personal essay with us. Members of The Novelry can enjoy the recording of her guest workshop now in their Catch Up TV library.

People make a life worth living, art worth making. Writing may be solitary sometimes, but you can’t do it alone.
—M.L. Rio

At The Novelry, you will never write alone. The three pillars that form our view of the writing practice are courses, coaching, and community. Here, you can find a writing group that feels like home at any time of the day or night. With our creative writing courses, you won’t only become a better writer, but you’ll also join a writing community that will see you all the way through from the first inklings of an idea to your book on the bookshelf, cheering you on at every step of the way.

As M.L. says, don’t write alone. A support system is crucial for any creative endeavor, and if for any reason it isn’t easy for you to access one in person, you are always extremely welcome to write with us here at The Novelry. We can’t wait to meet you and your book.

Hot Wax by M.L. Rio

Summer, 1989. Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob.

But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be.

But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

Order Hot Wax now in the U.S. and in the U.K.!

Wherever you are on your journey as a writer, our online novel writing courses offer the complete pathway from the idea to “The End.” With personal coaching, live classes, community support, and step-by-step lessons to fit your schedule and inspire you daily, we’ll help you complete your book using our unique one-hour-a-day method. For mentorship from published authors and publishing editors to live—and love—the writer’s life, sign up and start your novel writing program today. The Novelry is the famous fiction writing school that is open to all!