Writing Groups

One of the most frequent questions I get in person and on-line is how to find a writing group. I found my first writing group by randomly walking into a coffeeshop and noticing two women doing writing practice. I walked right up and asked if I could join them. My second writing group I formed by putting signs up at libraries and coffeehouses.

Folks find each other in more ways that you can imagine. Often, after my classes, folks will hang around and exchange phone numbers or email addresses. People meet at book signings and conferences. There are meetups and Facebook groups.

If you’re not that bold, check out the list of ongoing writing groups on my website. This is not a complete list of course. Many groups are private. But don’t fret. If you keep looking and asking, eventually you will find a clan of your own.

And be sure to check out my other blog posts on similar topics.

Finding a Community

Finding a Community

“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” – Henrik Ibsen quotes (Major Norwegian playwright of the late 19th century, 1828-1906)

When I teach, students ask about writing groups. I invite them to stay after the class if they are interested in forming one. Invariably a few folks hang out afterward to swap information and get something started. One of the groups that formed after one of my classes has been writing together for at least five years.

I first joined a writing group the day after I arrived back in Columbus from my first Natalie Goldberg writing workshop in Taos, New Mexico. I walked into Stauf’s coffeehouse, a place I’d written nearly every day for months, and spotted two women I hadn’t seen before sitting at a table. One woman listened intently as the other read aloud from a spiral notebook. On the floor beneath one of the chairs sat Natalie Goldberg’s first book, Writing Down the Bones. I waited until they were done reading to each other, introduced myself, and asked if they were doing writing practice. They were. I told them I’d just returned from Taos and one of Natalie’s workshops and they invited me to join them. The three of us wrote together for a year and a half until I moved to New Mexico to work with Natalie.

This experience proved to me, if you’re open to forming a writing group, the opportunity will appear. When I moved to New Mexico, I was more assertive. I posted a flyer at coffeehouses and the library. I was very specific telling prospective members what kind of group it would be and when it would meet. The flyer read, “Writer seeks other writers to do Natalie Goldberg style writing practice weekday hours.” Over the next few months, six people responded and we formed a group that met for nearly three years. Many of us are still in touch.

There is also a list of more than thirty central Ohio writing groups on my website at http://www.nitasweeney.com/newsletter/ongoing-writing-groups/

If you’re looking for a group of writers to share the journey, it’s out there. You might have to create it, but other folks want to be found. They’re just waiting for you to get it started.

Do you belong to a writing group? If so, how did it start?

One Thing

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” ~ Cicero [106 B.C. to 43 B.C.]

I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions since I rarely keep them. Instead, I challenge myself to do one thing differently with my writing every new year. Some of these decisions have been ambitious. In 1995, I began sending queries to magazines and my first feature article was published in Dog World. In 1996, I began studying with best-selling author Natalie Goldberg. In 2000, I began teaching. In 2003, Write Now Newsletter was born. In 2006, I went to graduate school to study writing. In 2008, I completed a book manuscript and began sending it to agents.

In other years, my New Year’s decision has been more simple. I’ve chosen to add more time to my writing schedule or adopted a new attitude about my writing. This year I’m joining a group of other Goddard College M.F.A. graduates to study writing informally on-line.

What will you do with the new year? Will you surf over to the recently updated on-going writing groups, and choose one to attend? Will you finish that short story you started in 2004? Or will you move your entire family across the country to study writing?

Whatever you choose, I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to post a response by clicking on the word “comments” at the bottom of the article.

Happy 2009 everyone, and happy writing.

(c)Nita Sweeney, 2009, all rights reserved

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How Do You Begin?

“I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.” – Moliere, from The Ridiculous Precieuses

My quest to fall in love with a new book project has made me think about how I stumbled upon the idea for my last one. I’ve been in an on-line writing practice group since July 1997. On October 24, 2004, I wrote the following opening lines on the topic, “This is What I Know:”

Normal people would have rallied around a bottle of Jack Daniels or resigned themselves to a lifetime of platinum drips to prolong the inevitable. But we were not normal people. My father was not a normal man.

When I reread the full 10-minute piece, I knew it had the makings of a book. Dad’s death. My depression. Our golf. Three topics intertwined. Even though it wouldn’t be a novel, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) and used the month-long structure to pull the material out of me. During November 2004, I wrote 50,000 words about my father and golf. Each day I pulled up a memory and wrote 2,000 words not stopping to figure out how the pieces went together. Of that original writing practice, not one complete sentence remains in the book, but it gave me the doorway into the project. That’s what I’m looking for again – an opening.

Now I have two projects, a novel and a memoir, vying for my attention. I alternate working on them. For the novel, I look forward to NaNoWriMo again this November. With the memoir, I’m using the free novel-writing software yWriter. I hadn’t discovered yWriter when I began the last book, but it proved exceedingly helpful to plot the NaNoWriMo mess after I’d written it. This time I’m attempting to plot both books before I begin the writing. I find this awkward. There may indeed be two types of writers: those who plot before they write and those who plot after. Ignoring the strong possibility that I might be an after-the-fact plotter, I’m creating chapters and scene descriptions, trying to make something vaguely resembling a three-act play.

I don’t have a complete answer to the question, “How do you begin?” So I’d love to hear your input. Please let me know how you begin a writing project. I imagine there are as many methods as there are writers.

(c)Nita Sweeney, 2008, all rights reserved

 
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Go Team!

Go Team!

Go Team!

“Anybody can become a writer, but the trick is to stay a writer” – Harlan Ellison

One Friday in August,1996, I watched two women sitting across from one another at a table in Stauf’s Coffee Roasters. Each woman, bent over a spiral notebook, steadily moved a pen across the page. After a few minutes, they took turns reading their writing aloud to one another. When one of them looked toward me, I quickly turned away. I’d just returned to Ohio from a workshop with Natalie Goldberg where we spent a week writing and reading aloud to each other. One of these women had Natalie’s bestseller, Writing Down the Bones, beneath her chair.

The question I’m asked most often is, “How do I find a writing group?” I have many long answers, but the simplest is this: know what you need and ask for it. There are many types of writing groups. Some share work and give feedback. Others write and read aloud. Still other groups simply get together to talk about writing. There are as many potential variations as there are writers. The most difficult part for me was asking for what I needed. Here I invoke one of Natalie’s rules of writing practice, “be specific.” If you want to meet weekends, don’t hedge when someone wants to meet on a weeknight. If you’re not ready to have someone else see your work, don’t join a group that’s bent on critiquing everything it reads.

Where shall you find these writers? Start with the list of Ongoing Writing Groups on my website. Take a class to look for prospects. Tell your non-writer friends that you’re looking for a group. Keep your eyes open. We’re everywhere. If you still can’t find a group that suits, don’t be afraid to start your own. A carefully worded flier posted in libraries, coffeehouses, and bookstores works wonders.

In 1996, I’d been writing at Stauf’s nearly every day for months, yet I’d never seen those women before. If I hadn’t been tuned in to the many shapes a writing group can take, I might have not noticed them at all. I mustered more courage than a shy person is supposed to have, courage born of desperation, and introduced myself. They invited me to join and the three of us wrote together for a year. That was my first writing group experience. After I moved to New Mexico, they continued writing as I’d found them.

It’s normal for a writer to want connection whether to share work or just talk about the craft and mystery of writing. If you haven’t yet found your “writing tribe,” it’s not too late.

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