Writer Support

Have you ever felt all alone as a writer - on an island of self-doubt?  Where can you find the ideas, the support, the comradery of writers everywhere without leaving the house?  After all, you are trying to put out some pages every day and you don't have time to find an obscure bar in downtown Houston where poets and other eclectic types hang out wearing fedoras and smoking cigarettes.
Welcome to the internet of things.  Online books and online groups have made writers gather together virtually.  Fiction writers have their own groups.  Romance fiction has their own twitter groups.  Science fiction has Instagram groups and hashtags allow us all to follow and search for what interests us.  When we read novels and read online we can easily find links to groups and feeds that we may be interested in following.
The other advantage is that we may be able to find popular books and famous authors via some feeds or groups.  We can follow them and join the same groups they are in.  What better friends could we have as an aspiring writer of fiction than a famous author who has already created great literature?  These chat groups and forums are all free, which is another huge benefit, and since they are virtual it does not require us to travel any farther than our own computer or cell phone.
Online reading, online fiction, online novels - these are all great search terms for the beginning of our road to group therapy.  Find some groups that have writers, and readers.  Post some of your own work and be receptive to the feedback.  Our attempt at writing novels is genuine and we are heavily invested in our own ideas - but sometimes a fresh perspective from someone who is not invested at all is a good one to hear.  One thing that I have noticed myself is that I do not take every single suggestion that comes along, but it plays in the back of my mind over and over while I am writing.  It cannot help but have some effect on my work.
Imagine a room of 1000 writers all offering their opinions, not all will be valid and not all will agree with you on anything.  But all one thousand taken as a whole can help us to balance our own ideas.
Now, it is also true that great literature was being produced long before we had focus groups, chat rooms, twitter feeds, and supportive friends.  Many great authors struggled and worked to produce their books without an agent or publisher, or even a printing press!  Humans have written great works and they will continue to do so - it may even be you who writes the next great novel.  So look inside yourself to find your story.  Accept advice and get support, but follow your own story your way.  Not every book has to follow a formula for success - some books follow no formula, that is what makes this an art.
Go, make some art - write fiction.