Tag Archive for: writers groups

Finding Your Writers Tribe

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My friend Dianne Freeman visits the blog today. We met through a miracle called Authors 18, an online group of writers who are all debuting novels in 2018.  I’m so pleased she’s here to talk about finding, or sometimes making, your own writers tribe. –Shari Randall

Before the ink was even dry on my book contract I had a crisis of confidence. I must be crazy, I couldn’t do this. It took almost two years to write my first book and they wanted the second in eleven months. What if I couldn’t do that? And they wanted an outline. I never wrote an outline. And publishing, and promotions, and all the things I didn’t even know about yet. How was I going to get through this? I needed help—lots of help! 
I decided to look for writers who were in the same position as me—new to publishing and not really sure what we were getting into. I didn’t know any local authors, so I turned to social media. There was already a group for authors whose books released in 2017, but so far no one had formed one for 2018. Unless I wanted to go through all these new and slightly terrifying experiences alone, I’d have to form one. 
I started stalking agents on twitter, waiting for one to announce a book deal for a new client. I poured through the deals section of Publishers Marketplace. Once I’d found a debut author, I’d have to make contact—would you be interested in joining my group to help prop each other up while we go through this publishing experience? Please? I was so relieved whenever they said yes. It finally dawned on me to post a notice on Twitter for debut authors to join us and member by member, Authors 18 was born.
That was March of 2017. Now we have 120 members in our Facebook group and I don’t know how I’d get by without them. We are one another’s fans, confidantes, advisors, and sounding boards. Those who published earlier in the year were able to share their experiences with the rest of us. When one of us finds a new marketing tool or promotional opportunity we share it with the group. If someone is having a crisis there’s always another member to talk it out. From cover reveals to launch parties, copy edits to cover blurbs, we have friends on this publishing journey who know what we’re going through, and I think we’ve all gained confidence from that.
Writing is a very solitary occupation, but you don’t have to go it alone. There are so many writing groups online and maybe even in your neighborhood. The camaraderie and support a group can provide is priceless. They can also be a source of critique partners and beta readers. If you can’t find an existing group that fits your needs, form one. It was the best thing I ever did for my writing career and my sanity. More importantly, it brought some wonderful new friends into my life.
Dianne Freeman is a life-long book lover who left the world of corporate finance to pursue her passion for writing. After co-authoring the non-fiction book, Haunted Highway, The Spirits of Route 66, she realized her true love was fiction, historical mystery in particular. She also realized she didn’t like winter very much so now she and her husband pursue the endless summer by splitting their time between Michigan and Arizona.
Her debut novel, A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder is scheduled for release with Kensington June 26, 2018.

Writers vs. Readers

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by Bethany Maines

Writer’s Group:
to gather with others to read and critique excerpts of written work
Reading Group: to
gather with others to read and critique books, drink and snack
When done correctly, a writer’s group can operate as an auxiliary
brain or a training ground to push a writer forward in her craft.  They can be fun, inspiring and incredibly
helpful. They can also be a sucking hole of negativity and wasted time. 
With that in mind, it was with some trepidation that I recently
tested out a new group. The hostess had a dog (bonus points) and they had
established a rule of positivity and compliments before critiques (nice).  They had a time keeper and a word count on
the segments we read (organized!). Each writer was doing different genres and
styles, but that had the benefit of bringing diverse points of view to the
table.  In general, it was great. It
provided very valuable feedback and I can only hope that I was equally helpful
to the other writers.
However, in specific, it was wee bit disappointing as there
were no beverages or snacks.  The
reasoning – that hosting the group was enough trouble and that we were here to
do actual serious work, not carouse – makes total, logical, absolute sense.  But in the sense of “it’s been a long week,
and Bethany wants a potato chip and a glass of something” it was less than I
had hoped for.  
I think, possibly what I was really hoping for was a Reading
Group.  Every Reading Group I’ve ever
attended came with crackers, cheese, and wine – the three low effort food
groups. Now, in defense of the writer’s group, very few Reading Group’s I’ve
ever attended actually stayed entirely on topic.  There was a lot of… uh… digression, shall we
say.  And time keeping was absolute
disaster.  And learning was sort of ancillary
by-product of reading a book I didn’t pick out, but gosh darn it, the artichoke
dip was fantastic.

So next month?  I’ll
be packing my own snacks to the writers group. 
After all, that group comes with a dog.
***
Bethany Maines is the author of the Carrie
Mae Mysteries, Wild Waters, Tales
from the City of Destiny and An
Unseen Current.  You can also view the Carrie Mae youtube video
or catch up with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Honing My Craft While Having One Hell of a Time

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by Marjorie Brody


I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the alert for opportunities to sharpen my skills. I enjoy attending organized workshops and seminars, and although I share my new knowledge with colleagues when I return home,  it’s not the same as if we all attend a workshop together—which can be pricey when you consider transportation, hotels and meals, as well as workshop fees. So, this year I hosted three private workshops at my home. I arranged for well established authors and writing instructors to fly into town and do a two-and-a-half day seminar for twenty of my colleagues. We had a blast. We learned, ate, laughed, ate, worked hard, and ate. We talk about our learnings and remind each other to implement our new-found insights long after the seminar ends. We even created a spin-off from the seminar Eric M. Witchey conducted which allowed us to extend our workshop experience.

If you ever get a chance to attend a workshop with Eric, I encourage you to do so. Eric has sold well over 100 short stories, a slew of non-fiction articles, and four novels. He consults with authors often and is a popular workshop presenter at the Willamette Writers Conference, Wordcrafters Conference, and the Short Story America Festival and Conference. Eric has a unique way of understanding story development and boosting productivity. You might want to read his article in Writers Digest, July 2005 on EDACE.

After several days with Eric, a group of us decided we wanted to use his strategies for developing stories. So, we started a group called the Story Starters. We’d pick a genre, a writing technique (e.g., amplifying setting through pov, person vs environment, indirect dialogue) and two emotions from bowls containing dozens. Occasionally, we pick the name of an item from another bowl (e.g., a  crushed soda can, a smelly pillowcase, a squeezed lemon slice). Then in a twenty minute period, we’d write a story using Eric’s EDACE and all the elements we’ve randomly picked from the bowls. When the timer rings, we’d each read our story aloud. The only rule: It doesn’t matter if our work is less than stellar. We are practicing. Merely practicing—although what great practice it is. The more we utilize the process and implement our skills the more integrated they become.

The system the Story Starters use allows us to experiment with genres outside our comfort zones, move characters from one emotional state to another, and have one hell of a time. Amazing ourselves with our creativity—and our consumption of popcorn, sweets and coffee—we laugh and inspire and impact each other other with our stories. We’ve built a strong sense of collegiality and a built-in cheering section for our published endeavors. The Story Starters meet every other week and embark on this process twice in an evening.

At the rate of two story-starts (although many times we finish a completed story in 20 minutes), that’s 52 short story ideas a year. Some will be tossed away, some will be refined and submitted to journals, and others become the ideas for longer works.

We’re having an awesome time practicing our craft. 


What about you? What practice techniques do you use?

P.S. When I told Eric I was going to mention him in this blog, he offered to send my readers a longer .pdf version of his Writers Digest article on EDACE. (He’s written several articles for Writers Digest and The Writer magazines). He also said if you had a specific question about some aspect of your writing, he could send you an article that may be helpful. He’s willing to do this if you contact him before November 13 and mention the Stiletto Gang.  His email address is: eric@ericwitchey.com.


Marjorie Brody is an award-winning author and Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her short stories appear in literary magazines and the Short Stories by Texas Authors Anthology and four volumes of the Short Story America Anthology. Her debut psychological suspense novel, TWISTED, was awarded an Honorable Mention at the Great Midwest Book Festival and won the Texas Association of Authors Best Young Adult Fiction Book Award. TWISTED is available in digital and print at http://tinyurl.com/cv15why or http://tinyurl.com/bqcgywl. Marjorie invites you to visit her at www.marjoriespages.com. 

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What Makes A Good Writer’s Group by Linda Rodriguez
Over the years, I have been a part of many writer’s workshops, groups, and organizations. I have been a founder of several. When I was a young wife and mother, I desperately wanted the companionship of other writers, other people who understood this difficult thing I was trying to do.

Since those days, I have developed many wonderful writer friends who truly understand this difficult thing I still try to do. Better yet, I am now married to a writer-editor and have a son and foster-son who are talented writers. I also belong to four writer’s organizations that I helped found—The Writers Place, Latino Writers Collective, Border Crimes, and The Novel Group—three that I had no part in developing but still love and support—the Macondo Writing Workshop, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, and Con Tinta.

Before these groups, there others that were not so helpful or successful, a series of undergraduate and graduate writing workshops, a group of activist writers putting out an underground newspaper (back in the day of underground newspapers), a short-fiction critique group, a freelance writers group,  a novel critique group, and even a romance writers group. So I have broad experience with writer’s organizations and groups.

One of the key elements of a good writer’s group, whether it is nationwide like the Macondo Writing Workshop, citywide like The Writers Place, or just a few writer friends like The Novel Group, is respect, respect for the group, for the other members and for the purpose of the group. Respect involves giving honest and helpful criticism without making it hurtful or personal. Respect involves valuing the distinctive differences of each member, as both a writer and as a person, appreciating what those unique qualities bring to the group as a whole.

Another hallmark of a good writer’s group is enthusiasm. Good groups are excited about writing and the writer’s life. When members grow discouraged, they can come away from a meeting of their group re-energized and back in touch with their passion for writing.

If a writer’s group or a subset of the group functions as a critique group, it is important for all the writers in the group to be writing at a similar level of experience and ability, otherwise the group will eventually fail as a critique group, no matter how congenial the individuals are. Often, however, beginners may be a part of a group led by an experienced author for a fee. This can be a good foundation—if the goal of both the leader and the members is for the members to outgrow the group.

What has your experience of writers groups been? If you have not been able to find one, would you consider starting one of your own?

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