Recipe for the Perfect Writers Group

Patti started a great discussion about the importance of critique groups, or writing groups, and I have to admit that the only writing group I am in at this time is Novel Matters. I have been in three different critique groups in the past 20 years, and they all deteriorated into social gatherings or dwindled in numbers. The reasons:

• No one had time to read the manuscripts ahead of time
• No one had time to write in general
  
• Members dropped out because it wasn't a priority
• Members dropped out because they were highly sensitive & wanted to hear that their writing was perfect
  
• The writing levels were at different ends of the spectrum
  
• Personalities got in the way

I met a wonderful lady on the plane trip back from a family reunion this weekend in Tennessee. She commented on my current read, How To Be An American Wife, and showed me her Nook. The conversation branched off into a discussion of her book club and she gave me some great suggestions for the new book club just starting at our church. She mentioned, as with a writers group, that her book club had become an extended family - providing dinners for her when she went through chemo and providing support when she had to find a care home for her husband with Alzheimer's. I began to put together my own recipe for my idea of a perfect writer's group:

1. Start with really good coffee. Add dark chocolate.
2. Gather the freshest ingredients of time, sensitivity and skill for each member to do a proper manuscript critique
3. Stir gently so feelings will never be hurt nor their hopes fall after processing
4. Fold members in to provide support for each other, even outside of writing
   
5. Stick to the recipe so that the group will stay focused on the purpose for meeting and not digress
   
6. Do not omit any ingredients. Each member should contribute and not become spectators or feel intimidated by the quality of writing of others in the group
   
7. Treat this unique recipe as a treasured family secret: What happens in the group, stays in the group
8. Research new recipes: Each member would read and report on a book on writing OR the group would read a book on writing together and discuss it
   
9. Follow the proper baking time, making adjustments for success: Consider the needs of the whole group in setting and date. Every member should respect the time and date of the meetings and be faithful in attendance.
   

What would you add to this description of the perfect writing group? What negatives or positives have you experienced? If you're not in a group at the present, what would make you set aside time for it? We would love to hear!

Growing a Bigger Heart: Writers Groups

Writing groups? According to Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird: "At worst, they will suggest that you have no visible talent whatsoever and should not bother writing anything ever again, even your name." At the best, you grow a bigger heart.

About ten years ago I was desperate for someone who wasn't my husband or my mother to read my early pages to see if I shouldn't beg for my job back or commit myself. After all, who believes they can actually write a novel? I needed a dose of reality.

So I attended a one-day romance writing seminar organized by a local writers group. I had no intention of writing romances, especially after outlining a story on a half-sheet chart as the teacher had suggested, but I'd gone to the seminar with quite another purpose in mind--to find a critique group to call my own.

At the end of the seminar, one of the organizers asked for writer news, like Grand Junction is the hotseat for all that's literary in North America. I stood up, swallowed hard, and asked for anyone interested in starting a critique group to talk to me afterward. It turns out I'd been sitting with the only three women at the seminar interested in starting a critique group. It was a divine seating arrangement.

We've been together for twelve years. Imagine that.

Anne writes about changes she saw in four of her students after they'd become a group: "...helping each other has made their hearts get bigger. A big heart is both a clunky and a delicate thing; it doesn't protect itself and it doesn't hide. It stands out, like a baby's fontenel, where you can see the soul pulse through. You can see this pulse in them."

A critique group, which may sound too editorial for you, or a writers group, which may sound a little ambiguous, is an absolute necessity for a writer. (Actually, I think all Christians should be in a writers group.) This is where I learned to see the best in what others offered and to speak the truth in love about their homely "children" without eviscerating them. It's also where I learned to hear the truth spoken in love...and to listen. In other words, my heart got bigger. And my writing improved.

Our critique group's motto is something like this: We love each other enough to tell the truth about our writing and believe we are capable of choosing what to listen to and what to do with what has been said, even if that means totally ignoring everything.

Here's a typical conversation when my work is being critiqued. I'm the quiet one:

"I wasn't quite clear on what you were trying to say here, Patti. Did anyone else have a problem?"

"I was totally confused. Is the girl trying to scale a wall or emote on the history of bricklaying?"

"I loved it. I cried my eyes out. Although, you may consider taking everything out about the wall. You have twenty-three metaphors and two similies in this passage alone. Maybe limit yourself to one a chapter."

"I'm a little confused about the relationship between the baker and the rapper."

"I found the premise of their relationship flakey." Lots of laughing. "Sorry, no, really. Perhaps the rapper's brother knows the baker, maybe they served in the war together."

"That's brilliant! That way the whole motivation for what happens between the rapper kid and the girl makes sense. You should use that."

"Did you mean to use the word "emigrate" here or did you mean "immigrate?" According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "emigrate" is when someone leaves a country to live somewhere else and "immigrate" means to come to a certain country. But then, this is another one of your extended metaphors. You could delete that whole page without losing any meaning."

"Are you bummed about the metaphors?" She holds up a page from my manuscript. "Check out all the smiley faces. I loved the way you developed these characters. However, you are a little heavy-handed with the clever descriptions, and check out how many prepositional phrases you have in this one sentence. But, overall, this is your best writing yet. This is a New York Times best seller in the making. If anyone can get this passage to work, you can. I love what you're doing here."

"Me too."

"All it needs is a bit of tweaking, kiddo."

I may not feel loved at just that moment, but I do after I've gone home in a funk, tossed and turned in bed for hours, and finally gotten up to read my critique group's margin notes. Clearly, they looked at my manuscript with the intensity of surgeons. If my literary slip is showing after I've revised, it's nobody's fault but mine.

Are you in a writers/critique/blood-letting group? Online or in person? What is the greatest benefit of a writers group? Pitfalls? How did you find your group? Do you have a bigger heart?

A Writer's Community

As writers we are always seeking support. First we should notice that we are already supported every moment. There is the earth below our feet and there is the air, filling our lungs and emptying them. We should begin from this when we need support. There is the sunlight coming through the window and the silence of the morning. Begin from these. Then turn to face a friend and feel how good it is when she says, "I love your work." Believe her as you believe the floor will hold you up, the chair will let you sit.

Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

But you must choose this friend wisely. Test her mettle. Can she give you the bad with the good? Does what she say match or exceed objective observers, like reviewers, editors, and your readers who will definitely e-mail you?

My friend Muriel guffaws at my misplaced modifiers. She notices everything, and she's brutal. She quotes the Oxford English Dictionary in the margins of my manuscripts when I misuse a word. I love that about her. Always the teacher. I'm her student. That's how I know she loves me too. So when she does say, "Patti, I love your work," my soul sighs.

When a workshop critiqued my first short story, speaking one by one around a large circle while I sat swallowing down my breakfast, forbidden to speak until the last person, the professor, gave his critique. All they said was true, at least the critique partners I trusted. Forget that guy who thought an epiphany required gun powder.

Nonetheless, when the time came to start my writing life in earnest, I went it alone, until the loneliness and self-doubt all but ate me alive. I went searching for a writing community.

I live in a smallish town. Writers can be hard to find. I attended a romance writers seminar just to peruse the crowd. I'd prayed to find a critique group (AKA writing community) that day. I sat at a table with three other ladies. After the lecture, I pleaded for a critique group. The room went silent, but the ladies at my table gave me their phone numbers, and we've been together for over ten years.

I'm also fortunate to attend a church that organizes small groups around special interests as well as deeply spiritual activities like Bible studies, which I host, and trusts that the Holy Spirit will show up. I meet with The Lord's Write Hands on the first Saturday of each month. A broader community offers the opportunity for more writers who will bolster my flagging spirit with their tales of contracts or the glossy pages of a published article. The bigger this circle is, the better the chance that someone has something wonderful happening in their writing life, even if it's a goal to type the title of their novel on a blank screen.

I belong to professional organizations, like American Christian Fiction Writers, to broaden that circle even wider. I learn so much from those who have gone before, and I'm finding I have something to offer those just starting. We're all on the same side as Christian writers. I'm not saying jealousy doesn't happen or feelings don't get hurt. This is the Body of Christ after all! We confess our sins, do our forgiving, and for the Lord's sake, we continue loving and supporting. Mostly.

And what an amazing gift the wonderful ladies of Novel Matters have been for the four years we've been meeting here every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I feel like God gave me the Barbie Doll House and pony for Christmas with these gals. They cheer. They pray. They exhort with gusto. My writing life has taken on a new spark with the girls behind me.

And that's one of two bottom lines. No, I'm not an accountant, but I know about the importance of a community of writers. The first bottom line is this: Don't expect your writing to improve until you submit your heart and work to a writing community. The second bottom line won't surprise you. A writing community is a faith community for the believing writer. Expect God to show up in big ways.

How has being a member of a writing community changed your perceptions about the writing life?