Intro to Writing Groups

When new writers ask me for advice, one of the first things I recommend is finding or creating a group of fellow writers who can offer feedback and encouragement on each others' work. Writing can be a lonely business, and talking to others in the same boat is a great boost for confidence and motivation. Also, editing your own pieces is challenging when you're so close to the material, so getting a critique from other perspectives is invaluable.

My first writing groups were the workshop classes that I took in university. Most of the students were beginners, and we were just learning how to critique as well as write, so it really helped to have an experienced writer as our teacher, leading the class.

When I moved to a new city after finishing my master's degree, I was suddenly without a writing community. So I signed up for a local community workshop, more to meet other writers than to get help with my work. I continued to meet with several women after the workshop ended, and we have become very good friends and supporters. I always feel invigorated to do my work after I meet with them. And having a fan club cheering on your successes can't be beat.

It can be harder to join an existing, established writing group. But I have also found a group this way, a larger group with a shifting membership, where members are used to welcoming and orienting newcomers from time to time. We meet once a month and critique one or two stories, each providing written feedback as well as having a discussion of the work.

I believe it's important that writing groups have a certain amount of homogeneity. If writers are of wildly different levels of experience, beginning writers may feel discouraged, and veterans may be impatient or overly critical. If writers are working in a great variety of genres or formats, the feedback from a poet may not be applicable to a fiction writer, and mystery, romance, and realism experts may be out of their league when it comes to evaluating each others' work.

Look for local writers at workshops and writing classes, authors' association meetings, writing contest awards ceremonies, bookstores, and writing festivals. If you can't find an existing group to bring you in, start your own. And if you're having trouble finding someone nearby, there's always the Internet! You can find an online support group for any niche.

I'd love to hear your stories of how you found or formed a writing group, and what it's done for your creative process.