Wednesday, January 25, 2012

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?

11 comments:

Rachel Schieffelbein said...

I, sadly, do not have a writing group. I'm from a town of about 2300 and there's no group here. I've been looking in surrounding towns, but no luck so far.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I don't have one in the real world - just here online.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I feel for you, RachelleMary. I know someone who drives three hours once a month to attend a meeting.

Golden Eagle said...

No. I depend on blogging to connect with other writers and learn about writing.

Ava Quinn said...

You know I love my writer's group. And yes, I still miss you at the meetings! Big news is Smith is Pres and I'm VP, so you know the place is going to hell in a hand basket. Looks like you got out while the going was good!

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Sounds to me like the fun is just rolling along, Ava. I still plan on rejoining at some point in the future. I'll miss sitting beside you.

Helen Ginger said...

That sounds like a great group. I've been in several groups over the years, but I'm not in one now.

jan said...

Where were you?? We missed you!

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I'm so upset I missed the meeting. I had forgotten my daughter had a 'BrainBuster' match last night. I couldn't miss the chance to watch our team play their jeopardy like game. Our team lost but it came to the last exciting question.

The Happy Whisk said...

Hey, popped in to say that I hope you have a groovy weekend, and that you get to collect lots of dust.

I figure I'll clean on Friday but Saturday and Sunday I don't want to do a darn thing.

Glad you have a good group to work with. Those are always good.

Happy Writing :-)

Cate Masters said...

Oh I wanted to go to that, darn it. I'll have to mark my calendar for next month. I need to get out where there are other writers, and it's okay to talk about nonexistent people. :)