015: How to Find a Writing Group

Writing groups are a fantastic way to improve your writing, sharpen your editorial eye, and get used to giving/receiving feedback on your work. I share how I found my writing group and give my best tips for how to find (or start) one of your own. 

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HOW to find a writing group

Hi, friends, I am not sure if my voice is completely back to normal. Maybe it sounds a little bit different still in my head. I was sick, I had COVID which is a huge bummer. I was thinking I was going to make it through the pandemic without having contract COVID. And then I got it. Thankfully, I was vaxed and boosted and it was a mild case. But I still had a horribly sore throat and this cold and congested feeling that lasted for over a week. I'm out of the woods now but I still feel like I might have so little bit of congestion still. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna dive back in. I'm gonna start podcasting again, because I want to, because today, we're talking about writing groups, which I'm very excited about. I mentioned this for the first time, I think when I first started posting on Tik Tok, I want to say, I made a video that was like talking about how you can't see your writing objectively. And I was sharing about my experience, bringing bringing something to my writing group. And everyone went nuts in the comments. They were like, oh, I want a writing group. Like, how did you find this? How do you find people?

So I wanted to talk about it. So I'll talk about my experience finding one and then I'll give you some tips on how you can find people to start a writing group with and writing group can be you and two other people writing group doesn't mean 15 People — in fact, the smaller the better. In most instances, I would say. So even if your writing group is you and two other people that meet at once every four months. That's awesome. That's a writing group. Actually, you know what a writing group could be you and one other person. Right? Technically, that's still a group. Anyways. Okay. The idea behind a writing group is, generally is that you bring your work in progress to other people, and they give you feedback on your writing. Okay, that's the idea. So it's not full on beta reading, where you are bringing an entire manuscript to someone and saying, hey, read this 80,000 word novel, and give me some feedback, let me know what you think about it. It's really meant to be smaller pieces, like you bring a chapter to the group, or you bring a 3000 word short story, something manageable, because the idea is that you're circulating work, and you're giving feedback to multiple people. And if you have, if you're trying to give feedback on something massive, it's just it's a big time commitment. And it's not really possible.

So the idea is that you bring short, you know, works to people a portion of your work in progress, really. So I put the idea of a writing group, I kind of set the intention that I wanted to find a writing group, about six months to a year before I actually found mine. It's gonna sound a little woowoo. But that's honestly what I did. I put it out there into the universe, that I wanted a writing group. I wanted to take my writing seriously. I wanted to make writer friends. I wanted to be part of a writing community. And I didn't have that, at that moment. I started taking classes I moved to Nashville in 2018, where I live now. And I started taking classes at this literary center called "The Porch" I think I think I mentioned it on the podcast before they held this thing called draft chat, which was held once a month. And it was a couple hours on a Monday night or Wednesday night or something. And you would bring there were like five or six people and you would bring a sample of your work in progress, like 10 pages, eight pages, I can't remember exactly what the limit was. And everyone would take a turn you would read and you'd give feedback. And you would discuss the person's work for about 10 minutes or 15 minutes or however long. So I had that. But it wasn't consistent. The same people didn't always come and it wasn't quite what I was looking for. But it was a really good step in the right direction because it got me used to reading other people's work. It helped kind of sharpen my critical eye It helped me learn how to give feedback to other people, because that was something that I hadn't done, ever really.

So I met a friend well we ended up becoming friends, I met this woman there, she was hosting the draft chat, she was organizing it. And, you know, we started talking and she said, Oh, hey, I'm starting this group of people that I know from the porch, and just people that I know Nashville, I, you know, want to do a more kind of like formal critique group, would you want to be a part of it. And I was so excited that she asked me, I was familiar with her work, because I'd seen you know, her writing over the last few months that I was attending these draft chats, she had seen my writing. And it just felt like we were, we had a good kind of connection. And so I was brought into this bigger group. And it was fantastic. It did take a while for us to kind of find our groove. I mentioned earlier that I think smaller is better, I think we started out a little bit too big. But one of the benefits of having a writing group is that you really get to know people and you get to know their, their writing life, you get to know what their goals are, you get to know what they're working on what their style is.

So as you become more familiar with their writing, because you're seeing it once a month, or every few months, it really helps you provide more detailed feedback, that's, that's going to help them. So I it was a process for me to learn to trust my own voice. I was not at all confident when I started giving feedback to people. And what's interesting is I would make notes as I was reading someone's, you know, a chapter of someone's novel, let's say, or a personal essay, something like that. I would make notes to myself, as I was reading, that I would come to the group when we would meet. And I would be too timid to say my feedback. And then I would hear someone else say the exact thing, the same thing that I noticed. And I would think, oh, crap, why didn't I say that out loud.

So it was a process of learning to trust my own judgment, and to really develop kind of a critical eye of viewing writing. So I share all of that, because I'm going to come back to it when we're talking about how to find a writing group, how you can find one, but I also share it because there's going to be a learning curve, it's going to be an adjustment process, especially if you've never done anything like this, if you've never made this commitment to show up regularly to bring work regularly to a group. I also had to learn how to take feedback. And the first time I did it was very, very hard. I almost felt like I was gonna have an anxiety attack. I had never had multiple people give me feedback on my work at the same time. It was hard. And it wasn't all critical. I mean, there's a balance of constructive feedback, like hey, this needs work, but also like you're doing this well. But yeah, it's that's something you have to learn as well, if you're going to be part of a writing group is how to take feedback and not let it completely throw you off. And derail you and how to sort of like, deal with that. When you put writing out in the world. Not everyone is going to love every single word that you write. So it's good practice.

Okay, so I have a few suggestions of how to find a writing group. My first suggestion is, is based on what I shared with my own experience is to get involved in your local writing community in person. Now, obviously, there's a pandemic still like this isn't completely possible, especially if you're listening to this and you're like, I live in a town of 2000 people, we don't have a writing center, I totally understand that. You might find some of my later suggestions more helpful. So just stay tuned. But for the people who do have a writing center or literary center in your city, get involved, start going to classes start going to readings, if you don't have the funds to invest in taking writing classes, just go to a reading, those are usually free or they're 10, you know, 10 bucks, if there's like a lunch and learn component. You can also just go to bookstores when authors are reading and start talking to people and I know that scary I know it's scary to network. Most writers are introverts. I'm an introvert. But I was able to talk to just one or two people at this writing center that I was going to when I was taking classes it was a much more manageable way for me to people meet to meet people than just like networking in a room of like 50 people. So that's my first suggestion is to get involved in person.

My second suggestion is to use social media. I have seen tiktoks on my for you page that have come up saying that people are looking for beta readers, they're looking for a critique partner, they're they're wanting to get involved with other writers and share work. So definitely check out social media. I've also seen similar things on Instagram, you know, you can just check different hashtags but kind of just getting plugged in on social media can be a good place to start. And remember to form a writing group, you don't need 10 people, it can just start with you and one other person, that's a writing group, that's all you need to get started, I will say it might be a process of, it might take some time to find the right fit, both energetically fit and kind of like how you prefer to give and receive feedback, it might take some time.

So if you decide to start a writing group with someone that you meet on social media, and it's not great, it's not a great fit they're just not really at a place where they can give you feedback. Like it's okay, keep at it, keep trying. So, yeah, social media is a great place for this. There are also as an extension of social media. My next tip is to look at Facebook groups. And I know a lot of people don't like Facebook, a lot of people aren't on Facebook, but the groups are different. You can find writing community, you know, writing related groups on Facebook and either scan the group to see if people are have put out calls for this kind of thing or start your own. I find it much less intimidating to think about posting in a Facebook group where a lot of people can see it, as opposed to like doing something in person with people. So if you're introverted, and you're shy, or you're anxious, that's a good way to do it, too.

There is a website out there that's called critique circle, I have not used it. So I can't give like a recommendation of you know how good it is or anything, but I know that it exists. And the idea behind it is to, for you to match with people just swap writing and to give each other feedback. So that's something you could look into as well. I want to reiterate something to wrap up that I said earlier, which is that it might take some time to find the right blend of people to find the right group to get on the same page with people about how often you want to meet, how often you want to, or how long you want to have your your work that you're sharing with people be like if you want to have a word limit, it's going to take some time to figure out how to set things up. If you want to set a timer for 20 minutes and say, okay, each person gets 20 minutes to discuss their to receive feedback on their work. It might take some time. Stick with it. It's so valuable. I'm in a place with my writing group now where I just find it so helpful, and it's motivating. It forces me to write because I want to have something to bring to my writing group. So even for that reason alone, I just find it incredibly valuable. And I'll see you next week.

Katie Wolf