Writers Groups

Writing Groups

The second week of the month is a particularly fun week with my writing odyssey.  The month of May is no exception.  On the second Tuesday is the Kitsap Writers Group (KWG) and on the second Saturday is the Bremerton Writers Meetup.  These two groups have largely different formats for presenting and critiquing writing.

The KWG uses a group on YAHOO that story portions are downloaded into.  If I download a file for critique, I am expected to critique at least seven pages of everyone else’s work.  We have a whole month, providing a file is posted early to get it done.  Being that I am a more methodical sort of person, I like the time to digests the material.  Also, I don’t feel pressure only to do seven pages and generally will critique twenty plus pages.  Besides that, they are a talented group, and despite the rawness of the material, the stories are interesting.  It seems like we are reading a serial.  Then on meeting night, we discuss the critiques (generally already returned by email).  We learn quite a bit.  We get the idea as to what seems to work and what doesn’t so that we can make up our mind as to change a part of the story or not.  For my book, the two chapters I submitted is approaching mid second act (the middle of the book).  Several concerns were, as I built tension for the confrontation everyone is expecting, is that I was climaxing too early -like that has never happened.  Relief was prevalent when I assured everyone that it was just a close call.  Then we lively conversations about aspects of each other’s material.  The insights given on story are jewels that I would ‘almost’ feel guilty about using.

The Bremerton group is a gathering that goes by the seat of your pants.  We read aloud seven to ten pages and receive immediate feedback.  I like format as it gives a more visceral input.  How the material sounds verbalized.  As a side note, not all material is written with the idea of being read aloud.  Yet, I think the best authors that are good wordsmiths that naturally write to presentation’s orally and by reading.  Unfortunately, I’m not quite there yet.  Reading out loud does accent poorly written sentences that don’t bother me silently.  This on the spot format does more to tighten the piece being presented.  It has less to do with the overall story/novel construction.  Meaning that plotting, character arcs, resolution are not addressed.  I feel somewhat deficit in my feedback because if the reader doesn’t bring a copy for me to follow along with, I can’t do as good a job giving feedback.  I simply can’t remember points I thought of by the end of the reading.  If I try to write them down, then I lose track of the story.  Also, this group is more active in the community.  We have had Poetry Reading nights with well-attended audiences, Poets, and storying tellers presenting. 

I have to admit that were it not for these two groups I could not have written my novel to the point it is.  I chuckle when I refer to it as my throw-away novel.  It seems, most of the published authors refer to their first and sometimes second, and third novels as paperweights.  I have hope in my heart, because of the running commentary on my book from these two groups that my novel will be at least modestly successful upon completion.  Time will tell. 

How does it work for you, if you have a writers group or beta readers that you interact with?  Do you think you would be as good a writer as you are if you didn’t have their influence in your work?