They Know Me Here



From FB

Later today I'm going to finally make one of the writer's meetings organized by some other writers in neck of the woods. The meeting place is a little inconvenient for me, a library on the other side of a tangle of traffic. I'll have to traverse the busy highways at rush hour to make it to the meeting.

I've only attended one of these meetings before but it was great. Everyone brings a few pages of their current WIP with enough copies for everyone.  We take turns reading each other's writing, mark it and give a brief oral critique. There's a great variety of genres represented, thrillers, romances, fantasy, and cross genres between them all.  The writers present are at different places in their writing careers and our goals vary as well as our backgrounds. Such a mixed bunch are perfect for getting lots of feedback from different perspectives. I learn as much from listening to the critiques of other people's work as I do from critique of my own.  It's a nonthreatening, comfortable bunch of people who are really supportive and nonjudgmental of each other.

There's always a little time before and after to share our thoughts on the world of the word.  We talk about publishers, editors, agents and the ventures into self-publishing many of us have made. We'll also likely discuss the upcoming conferences most of us will attend. 

Our current meeting place is a meeting room that's part of a library so we'll have to bring our own drinks, but that's fine.  It's great to socialize with other writers but most of our time will be spent doing actual work. 

Do you have a supportive writers' group you spend time with? Is it mostly for social reasons or does your group concentrate on work? What do you need from a writers' group?