In Buddhism they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. While I haven’t always found that to be true, I have found, when the writer is ready, the writing group will appear. I’ve been lucky to be part of a few writing groups in my lifetime, and hope to be part of a few more. There’s a wide variety of groups out there, but what I’ve needed as a writer has appeared at just the right moment. One thing all my writing groups have offered is camaraderie, cheering, and a few good laughs. All these serve to keep our spirits up when the way gets dark and lonely and the road of life gets a little bumpy.
I met my first writing group through the Canadian Authors Association. This is a great place to start if you’re new to writing. You get to connect and find some people who are at your level. I remember the four of us sitting around a dining room table reading our tentative early drafts. I was so ready for that. And I’m still good friends with one of the women from the group though I’ve moved away. We don’t read each other’s work anymore, but we’re there to cheer each other on and share our own stories. After completing two drafts of my novel, getting married, having kids and moving to the country, I was ready to meet a new writing group. And they appeared. Well, someone mentioned a certain name and I went up and introduced myself. This group met in a living room twice a month when the weather was fair, for me anyway as I wasn’t used to driving in the dark, stormy nights of Grey County. We’d read poetry, chapters from novels, short stories, tidbits and at the end, we’d have a writing exercise. No matter what happened, we could always say, we’d written.
My next group was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse, a chance to work with an English Professor and fellow novel writers to FINISH THAT NOVEL. I was yearning for the company of others struggling with this long form: How do you get the balance right when by the time you’ve finished an edit, it’s hard to remember where you were at the beginning! And so it went. We met weekly for a year in the backroom of a bookstore, reading our chapters, commenting, critiquing over coffee. This will always be a favourite time in my life and helped to bring my writing to a higher level. But this group had a set time frame that was coming to a close. And it was time to think of a new novel, I’d been working with this one so long, but I could see our days together were coming to an end.
A novel writer’s course was being offered in Owen Sound, led by a published author, something to reignite the fire. We met weekly for about six weeks, but I missed some as my father died. Out of this course came my current writing group. We don’t read each other’s work, which is good because I don’t have any to share at the moment, I’m in percolating stage. But this group has worked on novel writing topics and encouraged me to attend writer’s conferences, contact an agent, build a platform, and here we are blogging.
Each group I’ve been in has responded to my writer’s needs at the time I was busy living life. In all, good friendships were made, and the path was a little less lonely. They cheered me on at those moments when you’re ready to say, Why do I do this? I should just stop. So, if you’re a writer, and especially just starting out, go get yourself a writer’s group, and if the fit’s not right, look around, another’s sure to appear.
For more on Writing Groups, check out this blog: www.hollylisle.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-or-how-to-choose-a-writers-group/
