Amy: Different kinds of writing groups have different benefits. A moderated online side-by-side writing group, such as the London Writers’ Salon writers’ hours, can help you make time for writing and keep you accountable (suggestion: leave that camera on!). Critique groups are a way to share your writing and give and receive feedback.
Or you can create a group with whatever goals and structure you want. A fiction writing group I’m in focuses on critiquing plots for novels. Another group meets weekly in a park, where we catch up, talk about what we’re reading, then about how our writing is going, and we end with 30 minutes of side-by-side writing. ALL groups can be wonderful for helping you feel like part of a writing community.
Jennifer: I love my writing group. I’ve been in my current writing group for [13] years, and we’ve survived job changes, a marriage, a divorce, two babies, moves, professional ups and downs, and writing that runs the gamut from grants and academic articles to young adult novels, blog posts about Pluto, and news stories on robotic fish and the mating rituals of pea hens. It works for me.
I’ve been in six other writing groups over the past twenty or so years–some worked, and some didn’t. Looking back, I could have saved myself time (and stress) if I’d just recognized these signs: (read Jennifer’s full blog, 7 Signs It’s Time to Break Up with Your Writing Group)
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