Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be taking the last applications for our Edit Your Novel the Professional Way course! So, as we think about gearing up for the new term, we’d love to know:
Do you enjoy getting, or giving, feedback from your peers? Is writing a solitary activity for you, or a process to be shared? We’d love to know – and if you’d like to learn more about the course, do send us an email!
Having written 18 books and 100's of magazine articles for more than 30 years I never thought about joining a writer's group.
When I wrote a novel, I decided to fly it past a group of writers. I found their comments to be reasonable and helpful. The major factor in their reading parts of the story, was that it gave me some insight into what readers wanted. I also ad a few friends read the story. Their comments were usually quite simple, 'I liked it,' being typical. I reworked it based on what I learned from the group.
Would I do it again? Possibly, probably, but only to a select group that has interests similar to the story's theme.
I joined a local writers group three years ago, soon after I began writing my first novel, and I'm loving the experience. We've kept meeting regularly during lockdown, and it's great to be able to discuss writing with people who, even though they're working on completely different projects, are all facing similar challenges. It's a rather informal group with a very competent, very empathetic leader, and I've learnt much from our sessions.
I've been part of a writers group for four years now and I find the feedback invaluable.
In particular it enables me to compare readers perception of my work against what I thought I'd written - not always the same thing!
Simple tweaks based on the feedback helped to clarify things. Also, some of my writing was described as 'sketchy,' which I took on board and elaborated some scenes and broadened out certain characters.
Overall, I think being part of a writers group is an opportunity not to be missed.
I'm cautious. I kind of have a clear overall vision of what to do. The best advice I can get is reading the classics. I see as much bad advice going around as bad literature. And the people I most want to impress are just ordinary people, not people who have ideas about what writing ought to be.
Can it be both solitary and shared? I feel there is a time for both. I love my writing group. It's like looking out of the window at night and seeing there are lights in other people's houses. I no longer feel alone. But no one can ever sit with me while I write and some things need to be kept unsaid while they percolate and fit into my plot.
Question: Have you ever been part of a writers group?
Answer....... In a literary sense, No*
I was published in some research, white papers, news articles, safety-Op's. Thats more of a team project, and then there's always technical editors + lawyers = check, check....... Amounts to a <zero> in the literary world, but its good discipline experience for writing....
A story App in far away place, in a emerging market, found my story line, online, so I did some stripped chapter versions into short story's, that was e-published (kinda like an online magazine), & is developing into a series with a following translated in a language & script I don't understand..... I'll take it*
Drawing a circle around this............ Still look'n for that wri't'n-group-hang'n-out-place... But then again, in my line of work, post Covid world... It's busy, like game on* All in*..... Good thing about that is; allot of new content for the story line, hopefully some down time will come this winter, write some more, and find that writers group with a positive vibe and learn more......
Or......Plan B is; swim the channel, wash-up on the beach at Cornerstones, throw down my literary MS baggage on the steps, and go to boot camp with the literary power girls ....... (smile ;-).... Thx for another cool question.... (K)
I've been a member of a group that grew out of a 4 month workshop. We've been together since 2015. We write in various genres and critique 2 pieces a month. Over time, the sessions have become terrific. There are many ideas (we don't do prescriptive) about characters, arcs, description, emotion, whatever. We don't all agree, but out of the discussion usually comes ideas honed by the group. The notes on the mss are important, but the discussions generate the most help. I will note, it took us a couple of years to come to this point of trust.
I completed a screenwriting MA under Phil Parker at LCPDT (LondonUniv of the Arts). Worthwhile, but everything depends on the group dynamic. Sometimes energetic sometimes non-committed. I find I work better alone, until a certain professional point is achieved.
I've always felt daunted by the thought of a writer's group and still do. But twelve years ago I put a short story on ABCtales.com to support the Chagos Islanders. I couldn't have found a friendlier site and I put more on, read others' and have found it great, with a wide range of writing. I don't have much time at the moment but go back to it when I can and always feel welcome. But in other ways, yes, it's a solitary occupation and a little oasis.
I loved being with my writer’s group and benefited hugely from discussing everyone’s work, my own particularly. The mutual support was great. We kept it going through Covid on Zoom. Back to meeting in person now but last year I moved 400 miles away so have lost that!
There is a group in the village here but I’m absorbed with editing and re-editing my novel - maybe I’ll join at some stage. I certainly miss interaction with other writers.
I thought I would but I alas I didn't find it as helpful as I had hoped on this course. Perhaps due to a lack of congruence with others in the group. Perhaps it was just me. But that kind of writing fellowship is something I would love to find somewhere in the future.
Yes, I belong to an online close group since May 2019 just after I started to write again after a very long period. It has been a tremendous help both in terms of writing and having a group I can discuss aspects of writing as well as have work critiqued. Members come from all over the world and all walks of life. Some are professional editors and writers while others are retired or work. One of the most helpful aspects is the critique forum where you can post extracts f your work securely for feedback. When you have a MS ready, you can request beta readers. My writing has benefited from the feedback and from the experience of reading others work in return.
Having written 18 books and 100's of magazine articles for more than 30 years I never thought about joining a writer's group.
When I wrote a novel, I decided to fly it past a group of writers. I found their comments to be reasonable and helpful. The major factor in their reading parts of the story, was that it gave me some insight into what readers wanted. I also ad a few friends read the story. Their comments were usually quite simple, 'I liked it,' being typical. I reworked it based on what I learned from the group.
Would I do it again? Possibly, probably, but only to a select group that has interests similar to the story's theme.
I feel impelled to post my mantra - the last verse of Yeat's "all souls night"
Such thought -- such thought have I that hold it tight
Till meditation master all its parts,
Nothing can stay my glance
Until that glance run in the world's despite
To where the damned have howled away their hearts,
And where the blessed dance;
Such thought, that in it bound
I need no other thing,
Wound in mind's wandering
As mummies in the mummy-cloth are wound.
Toma ya !
I joined a local writers group three years ago, soon after I began writing my first novel, and I'm loving the experience. We've kept meeting regularly during lockdown, and it's great to be able to discuss writing with people who, even though they're working on completely different projects, are all facing similar challenges. It's a rather informal group with a very competent, very empathetic leader, and I've learnt much from our sessions.
I've been part of a writers group for four years now and I find the feedback invaluable.
In particular it enables me to compare readers perception of my work against what I thought I'd written - not always the same thing!
Simple tweaks based on the feedback helped to clarify things. Also, some of my writing was described as 'sketchy,' which I took on board and elaborated some scenes and broadened out certain characters.
Overall, I think being part of a writers group is an opportunity not to be missed.
I'm cautious. I kind of have a clear overall vision of what to do. The best advice I can get is reading the classics. I see as much bad advice going around as bad literature. And the people I most want to impress are just ordinary people, not people who have ideas about what writing ought to be.
Can it be both solitary and shared? I feel there is a time for both. I love my writing group. It's like looking out of the window at night and seeing there are lights in other people's houses. I no longer feel alone. But no one can ever sit with me while I write and some things need to be kept unsaid while they percolate and fit into my plot.
Question: Have you ever been part of a writers group?
Answer....... In a literary sense, No*
I was published in some research, white papers, news articles, safety-Op's. Thats more of a team project, and then there's always technical editors + lawyers = check, check....... Amounts to a <zero> in the literary world, but its good discipline experience for writing....
A story App in far away place, in a emerging market, found my story line, online, so I did some stripped chapter versions into short story's, that was e-published (kinda like an online magazine), & is developing into a series with a following translated in a language & script I don't understand..... I'll take it*
Drawing a circle around this............ Still look'n for that wri't'n-group-hang'n-out-place... But then again, in my line of work, post Covid world... It's busy, like game on* All in*..... Good thing about that is; allot of new content for the story line, hopefully some down time will come this winter, write some more, and find that writers group with a positive vibe and learn more......
Or......Plan B is; swim the channel, wash-up on the beach at Cornerstones, throw down my literary MS baggage on the steps, and go to boot camp with the literary power girls ....... (smile ;-).... Thx for another cool question.... (K)
I've been a member of a group that grew out of a 4 month workshop. We've been together since 2015. We write in various genres and critique 2 pieces a month. Over time, the sessions have become terrific. There are many ideas (we don't do prescriptive) about characters, arcs, description, emotion, whatever. We don't all agree, but out of the discussion usually comes ideas honed by the group. The notes on the mss are important, but the discussions generate the most help. I will note, it took us a couple of years to come to this point of trust.
I completed a screenwriting MA under Phil Parker at LCPDT (LondonUniv of the Arts). Worthwhile, but everything depends on the group dynamic. Sometimes energetic sometimes non-committed. I find I work better alone, until a certain professional point is achieved.
I've always felt daunted by the thought of a writer's group and still do. But twelve years ago I put a short story on ABCtales.com to support the Chagos Islanders. I couldn't have found a friendlier site and I put more on, read others' and have found it great, with a wide range of writing. I don't have much time at the moment but go back to it when I can and always feel welcome. But in other ways, yes, it's a solitary occupation and a little oasis.
I loved being with my writer’s group and benefited hugely from discussing everyone’s work, my own particularly. The mutual support was great. We kept it going through Covid on Zoom. Back to meeting in person now but last year I moved 400 miles away so have lost that!
There is a group in the village here but I’m absorbed with editing and re-editing my novel - maybe I’ll join at some stage. I certainly miss interaction with other writers.
I thought I would but I alas I didn't find it as helpful as I had hoped on this course. Perhaps due to a lack of congruence with others in the group. Perhaps it was just me. But that kind of writing fellowship is something I would love to find somewhere in the future.
Yes, I belong to an online close group since May 2019 just after I started to write again after a very long period. It has been a tremendous help both in terms of writing and having a group I can discuss aspects of writing as well as have work critiqued. Members come from all over the world and all walks of life. Some are professional editors and writers while others are retired or work. One of the most helpful aspects is the critique forum where you can post extracts f your work securely for feedback. When you have a MS ready, you can request beta readers. My writing has benefited from the feedback and from the experience of reading others work in return.