In Which I Bow To Synchronicity And Post My Spiel About Writing Groups

Just in the past week, several people who have little or no experience with writing groups have asked my advice about joining or starting them. I've been in a lot of workshop groups, workshop courses, goals groups, online critique partnerships, etc., and I've taught workshop classes, though mostly in poetry and academic writing, so when Karen Junker asked me to present on the care and feeding of writing groups the first time I went to A Writer's Weekend, I had plenty to say on the subject. I still have the material I gave out at that talk, and now so do you.

This presentation assumes an audience of people who have little or no writing group experience. It's been a long time since I was in that situation, so if you're just starting out and there are questions or concerns I didn't cover, please let me know. If you're a veteran of writing groups and think there's stuff I left out, I'd love to have that feedback, too. I have a feeling I'll be giving variations on this talk again, and I welcome the chance to improve it.

Feel free to link. Reposting with a link and attribution is okay, too.

( Building and Sustaining a Successful Writing Group )