Writing can be a pretty lonely thing. Most of the time it’s just you and your computer (or if you are more like Harriet and yours truly you and your notebook.) Yes, we tend to be the quirky, iconoclastic ones always at the fringes of things, watching everything that goes on and recording, recording, recording.
Sometimes, though, it’s nice to take part in things too, and to have a little human interaction. Some social activities frighten me terribly, but there is something comforting in a writing group. It’s a place where I can go and meet other people like me. These people get it!
I found my new writing group thanks to Meetup when I was looking for things to do in my new for-now home. There are a host of online writing groups as well, but that’s not quite the same thing. If you can track down a group of writers in your area, I urge you to do so, and if you can’t track down a group, maybe you should start up a group of your own.
I just got done listening to the audio version of Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories by Chuck Palahniuk. This is a collection of essays and articles on various different individuals and groups of people told in that unmistakable Chuck Palahniuk style. (If you’ve ever heard the phrase “building an author brand” tossed about and wondered what it meant read a few of Palahniuk’s works and you will quickly see how he has mastered this concept.) What I found fascinating, though, were the passages in which he discussed writing, which occurred at the beginning and the end of the book. In fact, if you haven’t read this book, I urge you to hunt down a copy, and if you read nothing else, read that introductory essay on writing. Good stuff, and I think anyone who has ever written, ever considered writing will quickly see that this is someone who gets it!
Oh, and in case you wondered if any good came of writing groups, Chuck Palahniuk used to belong to one.
My Books
Too true. Writing is lonely work and something that many people don’t understand. But I think the other major advantage to writer’s groups is the accountability. It’s not hard to reason away to your own self why you didn’t write yesterday or finish that chapter but a group of other people who are expecting, and hopefully, anxiously anticipating your next reveling piece, cannot be dissuaded so easily. Whether we want to please them or simply don’t want to be seen as a slacker, a writing group, much like any support group, will make you stick to your guns.
Good point, Sage, I didn’t even think of it, but it’s very true. I have a tendency to procrastinate, but now I will have to get something done every 3 weeks, at a minimum.