I found a new writer's group up here in Michigan. Hopefully it will be a good match. I really miss my writing friends in Florida and I've gotten such good feedback over the years anyone is going to to have a hard time measuring up.
Having said that, my observations of the new group give me some hope. For one thing the average age of the writers seems to be well under 60. Not that there's anything wrong with being older, but I sometimes felt like my writing output couldn't always measure up to my mostly retired peers.
The other, and more exciting, thing about my new group is that there isn't a memoir writer among them. As a writer of fiction, I've long wished to be surrounded by more of the same for quality feedback. Time will tell if this was a wish worth wishing.
There were, of course, some other differences I'm not so sure about. My old group spent its time critiquing. Whoever wanted to, read about five pages and then we'd go around the room with our thoughts. It seems this new group devotes an entire meeting to one person's writing. From what I gather, they have a month (since they only meet monthly) to read several chapters or more and the entire meeting focuses on that one piece. I don't see that helping me too often when I'm used to immediate feedback on a weekly basis.
Time will tell. They didn't even do that this week. Instead they chatted for about half an hour, then spent 15 minutes on introductions. This must have been for my benefit, since I was the only new guy there. Then there was a short writing exercise. Not my thing really, but they did seem rather impressed with what I whipped up in 5 minutes.
So the future looks bright, although I may date around some. Still, I made an effort to learn all their names, which is more than I can say for the one guy I sit next to for four days in a tiny cockpit.
Having said that, my observations of the new group give me some hope. For one thing the average age of the writers seems to be well under 60. Not that there's anything wrong with being older, but I sometimes felt like my writing output couldn't always measure up to my mostly retired peers.
The other, and more exciting, thing about my new group is that there isn't a memoir writer among them. As a writer of fiction, I've long wished to be surrounded by more of the same for quality feedback. Time will tell if this was a wish worth wishing.
There were, of course, some other differences I'm not so sure about. My old group spent its time critiquing. Whoever wanted to, read about five pages and then we'd go around the room with our thoughts. It seems this new group devotes an entire meeting to one person's writing. From what I gather, they have a month (since they only meet monthly) to read several chapters or more and the entire meeting focuses on that one piece. I don't see that helping me too often when I'm used to immediate feedback on a weekly basis.
Time will tell. They didn't even do that this week. Instead they chatted for about half an hour, then spent 15 minutes on introductions. This must have been for my benefit, since I was the only new guy there. Then there was a short writing exercise. Not my thing really, but they did seem rather impressed with what I whipped up in 5 minutes.
So the future looks bright, although I may date around some. Still, I made an effort to learn all their names, which is more than I can say for the one guy I sit next to for four days in a tiny cockpit.
4 comments:
Good luck with that. I'm too anti-social to join a group.
Anti-social? Travener? That hardly comes across in your blog posts.
How's the group coming along? Have you met with them yet? I can't seem to give myself enough time to tear away from stuff going on at home and life and work and my own writing...it's just too much responsibility to add in a critique group.
BTW, I've nominated you. :) http://www.aprilplummer.com/2012/01/if-this-doesnt-scare-you-off-nothing.html
It will be hard not to compare since you were with the Inkbloods for such a long time. However, they probably can use your expertise and maybe together you will all make some changes that work for you. I am amazed at how you got right out there.
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