Writer Resources and Tools: Writing Groups

Hey everyone! Here I am ready with another weeks post. I’m hoping that this one will be as informative and helpful as the last one about websites. I’m so excited that this post is on time because I wrote it ahead of time. Thanks Nanowrimo for not kicking my butt too hard. I’m slowly figuring this thing out. Luckily. Haha. So without further ado here is

Writing Resources and Tools: Writing Groups

Writing groups are and interesting and varied tools for writers to use. They can be helpful or detrimental depending on the groups you have and what you do with your time in it. There are always pros and cons to everything and writing groups are no exception. But even with the cons that go with writing groups I would say that participating in and being a part of writing groups is still worth it.

There are all sorts of writing groups but I think the two most generalized category of writing groups is physical or digital. In this modern day (and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic) we are so lucky to have the ability to have online/digital writing groups. One of the biggest cons of writing groups before the digital age was always booking places for a writing group to meet. For writing groups made up of mostly introverted people who often time either had family, work, or school obligations meeting up for these writing groups on a schedule was also a big con. But with the ability to have online writing group meetings that improved the ability of writing groups to have consistent meetings.

Physical meetings were just as helpful as digital meetings are now and are made up of basically the exact same things that happen at a digital meeting. The only real different being that for one you have to leave your house and for the other you don’t. For some people the physical option was always better. It gave them a chance to leave the house (which we as writers don’t do that often, admit it) and go to see other people that aren’t the people that they live with. Physical writing groups usually did require booking a place for a group to meet which, depending on the area of the world you live in, can be easy or can be really hard.

So now we’re going to get into the positives and negatives of writing groups in general and not specifically for physical or digital.

Writing groups can consist of whatever writers you want. This is amazing. Writers from all sorts of backgrounds, writing styles, genres, places, and writing levels. This is something amazing about writing groups. Diversity is always amazing and applauded. This can also create some pretty negative cons though. We as writers are humans (despite how much we think we are the Gods of our own little worlds. Haha.) Humans will always argue, have different points of opinion, and disagree. This can cause conflicts in writing groups. If you have a writer in your writing group who’s writing level is higher then everyone else’s they might begin to act like they know everything about writing. When you have a person like that in your group everyone gets discouraged. When you are that person you don’t feel challenged and you can’t grow. This can cause a problem in a writing group.

Different genres are also written a little differently. I write fiction – science fiction and fantasy. My writing advice is aimed mostly at fiction writers who write anything similar to those genres. Some of my advice does apply generally but some more specific advice is towards those genres. And that’s because science fiction and fantasy novels are written differently then if you were to write romance. That’s not to say that some skills that are used more widely in romance novels aren’t applicable to science fiction and fantasy, but they are written differently. If you have a writing group with people who write different genres there are pros and cons. Pros: maybe someone who writes romance could suggest to me a romance genre writing skill that I’ve never used before that could apply to the specific work I was writing. That’s amazing! Con: Sometimes they’re help isn’t actually helpful. Sometimes the skills they suggest aren’t really applicable to what you are doing. Then you both just get frustrated with each other.

But I think that the pros out way the cons when it comes to writing groups. One thing to keep in mind when being a part of a writing group is that you should always keep in mind that the writers there aren’t there to destroy your writing. If someone is putting in the effort to attend a writing group its because they want to be there. Writers are generally part of a writing group to help each other. When someone critiques your work, it isn’t because they hate it and want to destroy all happiness you have about it. When they critique your work, it’s because they like it and think that you could improve on it. I’ve found that writing groups can be useful but only if you come into them with the mindset that you will learn and grow from the group and will help the others there learn and grow as well.

Well, that’s all I have to say on writing groups. I hope that this is a little bit helpful for anyone who is trying to decide whether writing groups are for them or not. The few times that I have been part of a writing group I have enjoyed it. I haven’t been part of one for a while but I enjoyed them when I was. I hope that next weeks post on Writing Prompts will be just as useful and informative. Have a good week everyone and remember,

Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!