Writing Groups and The Writer

IdaHope Christian Writers has a writing group that comes together quite often to read, write, and fellowship. Why do established, mainstream authors suggest all writers join a writing group?

• Mainstream authors are IN a writing group. The group just happens to be agents, editors, and the public. They also fellowship with fellow authors.
• A writer’s group allows people to read your work.
• You learn to write for the public, not for the compost pile.
• Feedback is generally fun and supportive.
• Feedback is generally argued between friends.
• Feedback can be ignored if necessary, and at the writer’s peril.
• You learn to take feedback with the humility that constructive criticism deserves.
• You learn to give feedback with the gentleness that constructive criticism demands.
• Jokes about writing amongst writing friends are so much better than amongst strangers at nearby coffee shop tables. (Writing joke at the end of the blog.)
• Caffeinated writing, side by side with writing buddies, is energizing.
• The tip-tap of fingers on half a dozen keyboards is music.
• Creativity flows well in the writing group and in the shower. The two spaces ARE mutually exclusive.
• Sharing with others a similar passion ignites the soul.
• Positive news for one writer is positive news for the entire group.
• Support and empathy are readily available for sad or bad news.
• Real people reading your sentences is an honor.
• Writing is hard. Writing groups help energy flow from beginning to end.

Stay in a writing group, don’t give up, contribute, and you may be fortunate to find yourself like the man in the following joke:

He pulled up to the charred ruins of his home. Smoke still drifted from the possessions they spent years accumulating. She stood out front, a pan of burned biscuits in her hand, a cell phone in the other.

She sobbed. “I’m sorry. I put biscuits in the oven. The phone rang. It was your agent. And then before I knew it, the stove caught fire, then the kitchen, and finally it spread to the whole house, and I don’t know what happened, and I’m so sorry. Everything is gone, and even fluffy—”

“Wait,” the man said. “Go back a moment. My agent called?”

Beliefs represented by individual authors are not necessarily shared by all members of ICW.