What are writing groups/meetups like?
February 9, 2020 3:56 PM   Subscribe

I kind of like the idea of going to a weekly writing get-together, but it seems almost antithetical to how I want to write, which is focused and not-chatty. What sorts of writing groups have you been to, and what have they been like? Lots of focused writing and then chatting afterwards? What's the mix of "I have to write to live" and "I am a filthy casual and just like working on small things" attendees? Have you found one of these groups useful for growing your social circles, or are they pretty work-focused?
posted by curious nu to Writing & Language (6 answers total)
 
The writing groups I've been to have mostly involved people sharing and critiquing each other's work. No writing (or minimal writing, maybe an exercise or two) during the group, and maybe a social time with some chatting afterwards, but not necessarily. Can be a way to meet and connect with other writers, yes.
posted by shadygrove at 4:11 PM on February 9, 2020


I host an academic writing group in a classroom on campus. We have coffee, sometimes donuts or another snack, and a whiteboard where people write their goals for the writing session. Then people just ... write and cross things off. We don't usually read each other's work or talk much.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:50 PM on February 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


I haven’t been to one of these, but for awhile the broader writer’s group I was in did “Shut Up and Write” style meetings for the subset of group members who were interested/available. The way I understand it, you show up at a coffee shop or similar, set a timer for, say, an hour, and everyone puts on headphones and works. When the timer goes off, you take a break and chat for 30 minutes, and then do another writing interval. I’ve seen these listed on Meetup.com in my area too (SF Bay Area). They might be a nice mix of what you’re looking for.
posted by bananacabana at 4:53 PM on February 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


I went to one where we just sat there handwriting to prompts (not so interesting). My current writing group used to have a lot more submissions and usually had a due date a few days before the meeting, and you had to email it out, and then bring your papers with written comments to the meetings and hand them to the person after the discussion was over. Then there would be chatting. Lately nobody wants to submit anything so it's just turned into hours of chat time, honestly.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:45 PM on February 9, 2020


I have been to a couple of kinds of writing groups.

There are meetups for writers, which tend to be more critiques, sharing work, talking shit about publishers, that sort of thing. One I went to for developing writers had little writing assignments for each meetup and that's what we'd share rather than critiquing our actual normal work.

Then there are meetups for writing, which I associate mostly with NaNoWriMo, where you show up to actually write. Those usually have only a few interactive elements -- prizes for reaching certain goals or little games or things like that, but mostly people come in and actually write. I find write-ins terribly useful, so I don't know too much about them, though, as I have only been to a couple.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:28 PM on February 9, 2020


The writer's group that I attend is fairly casual and has a nice mix of people who write to live, people who want to write to live (the category I fall into), and people who write casually as a hobby. We also have a nice mix of genres, which I find WONDERFUL as a sci-fi/fantasy writer who went to school for writing and was generally dissuaded from writing in my preferred genre by teachers and fellow students. We're not a critique group, though people can and do regularly give their work to other members for opinions and critique; it's just at each person's pace and not at all mandatory.

Generally how the meetups go is that people show up and write at our usual coffee shop/sandwich shop on the designated evening at whatever time works best for their schedule. The official times are 6-10 p.m., but really no one stays for the whole night, and people show up and leave as their schedule allows. Those who need to focus and write bring headphones and are left alone; those who need to talk writer stuff with other writers will generally chat a bit in between bouts of writing. People flow between writing and chatting pretty organically and it generally seems to work very well. Some nights I write a ton, some nights I chat a ton, some nights I keep my headphones on for an hour and then take them off for chatting afterwards, but I always come away feeling connected to a community of writers, which is what I really wanted out of a writing group; I got critique burnout in college, and would rather give my work to specific people I select for critique rather than having to hand it out to a whole group who may or may not understand the genre I'm writing in, and therefore may or may not be able to give useful feedback.

I love my writer's group, but I don't know that it's really that much like your usual writer's group; in my experience they're more often critique groups, which are a completely different beast.
posted by bridgebury at 6:32 AM on February 10, 2020


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