I’m a
planner all the
way and what helps me be a planner is my writing group. We’ve
been in existence
for over ten years, and we call ourselves the Rainwriters,
because when we were
first forming, it rained for every single meeting. There are
seven of us, never
any more.
I think I’m just an average writer, but with the help of
this group, I
become a little above average. My work reflects six minds, not
just one. I know
some people do not do well in groups, but I couldn’t live
without the
Rainwriters.
First of all, I feel that I have to turn in something at
every meeting.
That pressure puts my butt in the chair and makes me start
typing. I go over
and over my submissions to the group, but they inevitably find
things I missed.
Like motivations that don’t work, like descriptions that are
given little
attention, like too many characters in the opening and so on.
Of course, I don’t take every suggestion. But when three
out of the six
commenting on my paper say that something doesn’t work – then it
doesn’t work.
Another advantage of our group is the variety of
opinions. One man never
misses a wrong spelling or the mistaken use of a word. Another
man sees the big
picture, but doesn’t do any line editing. A woman calls
attention to my lack of
using the five senses in describing a scene.
Some people do well meeting with a friend in a coffee
shop, others get
feedback from a few trusted friends. But I think everyone needs
feedback. Try
as we might, we can’t see it all.
“Some people come to writers’ meetings for cheap
entertainment.” You’ve
heard that expression, I’m sure and sadly it’s true. So we are
very careful
about who comes into our group. Even though several people have
asked to join,
we decide on new members, not by their place on the waiting
list, but by who’s
good for the group. And then we have a ‘three meeting’ trial
period, in which
we evaluate the newcomer and they evaluate us.
Some go to writers’ groups and find they are just social
groups, with
very little attention given to writing. We are on the other end
of that
spectrum. While we are friendly to all the members of the
Rainwriters, our
meetings are business meetings. They start on time and end on
time – two hours,
no more.
Our procedure is this:
We hand out printed copies of our manuscripts at the
previous meeting or
leave them in dropbox for the others in the group to get. If we
leave them in
dropbox, we have to send a message that our next manuscript is
there.
We don’t read at the meetings, unless someone has
something that has to
be edited right away. We do our editing in the quiet of our
rooms at home. At
the meeting one of us assumes the chairperson role and we start
through the
manuscripts. Figure it out –
120
minutes = our
meeting, 2 hours
3 minutes
– each
writer is allowed to comment on another writer’s work
18
minutes – the total
time each writer has to comment on others’ work
126
minutes – If all 7
of us used our full three minutes, that’s how long our meeting
would be.
We start with one manuscript and go around the room. One
member brings a
little timer that sounds a bell after three minutes. When a
person’s story is
being discussed, that person is not supposed to argue back. The
proper
etiquette is to thank the other members and take or ignore the
advice.
You might call this a free editing process, which it is.
I don’t remember
the actual quote but Jean Auel talking about writing a half
million words
before she joined a writers’ group. After that, her writing
blossomed.
Do you belong to a writers’ group? Does it help you? How
do you get
feedback on your writing?
Ed Griffin teaches creative writing in the community and
in a federal
prison. He is passionate about prison reform, the subject of his
other blog,
Prison Uncensored. http://prisonuncensored.wordpress.com/
Find Ed online at
Personal Blog http://edgriffin.net/
Writer’s Write Daily Blog http://writerswritedaily.wordpress.com/
Prison Uncensored Blog http://prisonuncensored.wordpress.com/
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