Friday, February 17, 2012

Writers' groups

I don't know if I told you that I had made a call for writers in my area in order to start a writing group. There was an immediate interest and we met once -- in a bar, which, despite only one other group of customers -- seemed unsuitable for our needs. Everyone brought along a piece of flash fiction and we read it out loud and commented on it. Proved to be impossible to me; I hate reading aloud as I'm simply not capable of doing so and, being ADHD, I couldn't focus on the stories, meaning I couldn't give feedback.

However, it was to be a one-off in the bar. I never took part in writers' groups before, except online (authonomy, to me, is one huge writers' group) and had not idea what to expect. The plan was to write a story each before the next meeting, then sending it around so we could comment on each others stories. But then, what's the point of meeting then? I can send each member the story back with my edits and vice versa.

So I sat down and wondered what good a writers' group would be for me. Perhaps reading each other's manuscripts, if there are any. But what do you do when you don't like the writing? For many it's more the 'getting a kick in the arse' to actually write something, a problem I don't have since I write daily, either on my novel or in form of a short story.

I came to the conclusion that it's not for me; I'd rather do my own thing, to be honest.

Do you have experience with writers' groups? How do you feel about it?

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