Topic: Face to Face writing groups

Hey all

I'm thinking of starting a writing group in my local area and am looking for ideas. I've been a member of TNBW and a couple of other online groups for many years. I've also been involved in several face to face groups over the years, but have never been able to find a consistently good/useful one.

There are a couple of reasons real life groups haven't worked well for me:

1. Most of them require you read your writing sample aloud with critique to follow.  I am not a fan of this method, as convenient as it is. I don't want my immersion factor being effected by literal author voice. The critique is also superficial at best because if you pause to write a note while the author keeps reading, you miss out on the next chunk of writing. Plus, there is zero time to pause and reflect...which is a vital part of the critique process for me.

2. The mix of genres and skill level.

I could advertise for a specific type of writing (novels, short stories etc.) and even set the experience level desired, but I live in a rural area and fear I will limit interest too much by doing so. Yet, it won't be a very helpful group if I don't put some limits on it.

Any ideas how I could go about combating some of these issues?

Quote Post 1

Re: Face to Face writing groups

Have a chapter swap. Each member swaps a few chapters, take them home and review, then discuss at the next meeting. You can even discuss the reviewers comments and make a debate about it.

Quote Post 2

Re: Face to Face writing groups

I was a member of a face to face group many years ago for a short period of time. We used the read aloud method you refer to. Although it was generally helpful, it did have the pitfalls such as notetaking and author's voice getting in the way. My suggestion would be to have each member read the work for themselves ahead of the face to face meeting, then have a limited read aloud of a short excerpt. Members could then make suggestions taking into consideration the whole work as already read, but also get a different perspective from the way the author actually reads the material.

People read aloud differently and some are reluctant to do so and may be nervous which would show in the tone of the voice. That tone can effect the perception of the work and if there is a different perception of the work read aloud to the perception of having read the material first hand, then that could also be brought into the conversation. I know from my personal experience that folks often times responded to the humor more in my reading aloud than they did to the written copy (I had a couple of them read beforehand.) Some things are simply going to "sound" different when read aloud than they do on paper. There could even be a hint that some things might be suitable for an audio book -- something I've considered but not yet committed to.

I do think you might benefit from limiting the genre if enough people are available, but it shouldn't be a serious cog in the wheels if you have a mixed group as long as they are open-minded about others choices. As far as skill level, I would think different levels might actually be helpful in the long run as I've found that we oftentimes get so bogged down in our ideas of what might be "right" that we fail to see the trees for the forest so to speak. Just as children often times present us with valuable insight -- even if humorous -- by what they say or do, so might less experienced members provide valuable feedback with a different take on what is written or read.

Hope that helps. Good luck. Take care. Vern

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