Finding Your Writing Group
Writing is often thought of as a lonely endeavour, and while it’s true that most stories only have one author, it doesn’t mean the process must—or should—exclude other people. Belonging to a community and having a support network behind you can help combat feelings of isolation, motivate you to write more and even make your writing better.
In this post:
The benefits of joining a group
What to look for
Where to look
When in doubt, start your own
Why stop at one?
The benefits of joining a group
The benefits of regularly attending a writing group are many. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest ones.
Feeling less isolated
Having people around who are all working on something similar to you certainly makes the experience less lonely. You can talk through problems with folks who won’t need as much start-up information, and you’re more likely to get practical advice when the people you ask for help have already faced those issues before. Feeling seen and understood by peers is a balm for loneliness and isolation.
Finding more motivation
If you’re anything like me, having a social contract can be extraordinarily motivating. Something about the simple act of telling people what you’re working on can make you want to, you know, actually work on that thing. If you have a whole group of people who are asking about and interesting in your progress, you’ll feel supported and that motivation multiplies.
Improving your writing
Hearing about your peers’ progress is a great way to level up your own skills. Maybe someone had a particular way of phrasing an idea that causes you to reflect on your own writing. Or maybe your group offers critique as part of its activities. Inspiration can be a social phenomenon and getting feedback is crucial for your own development.
Expanding your network
You never know who you might meet in your writing group. Maybe it’s a colleague who turns out to be a valued friend. Maybe someone you know has a connection with a publisher or a literary agent looking for a manuscript just like yours. Or maybe you meet an industry leader through your group if they attend as a guest speaker. Whatever the case may be, as with any field, getting to know your writing colleagues could gift you with a great support network and sometimes even opportunities you wouldn’t have had otherwise.
What to look for
Not every writing group is the same. Consider the following factors to tailor your search.
What is the group’s format? Groups could be about writing prompts, co-working, discussing writing topics, or sharing excerpts for critique. Some throw a couple of these elements into the mix.
How do they meet and how often? Make sure this is sustainable for your schedule so you can come back again and again. There are plenty of options these days. Maybe you’d like to join a local in-person group that meets every two weeks or connect with individuals virtually on a weekly basis.
What are the group dynamics? If you’re looking for them, you can find great friends in a writers group, but at minimum, you should enjoy your peers’ presence. You should feel supported, the same as you would want to support them.
What niche are they focusing on? Some groups are general, some focus on particular genres and others might have a particular membership in mind. If it’s helpful to meet with other writers in your genre or demographic, you should have options, though a more general group can still be helpful. It might open up your circle and allow you to see different kinds and styles of writing.
Where to look
There are many writing groups out there. You’ll just need to know where to look.
For those currently in school, your institution might already have a writing group. Check activity boards, online portals, newsletters or other publications for them.
Something after hours could pop up through social media. Facebook and Meetup.com are great resources for this. Meetup.com even has a whole category dedicated to writing groups.
If you’re a professional, joining an association might yield similar results to a writing group. These can offer valuable education and resources as well as networking opportunities with colleagues. Here are just a few in Canada:
In a similar vein, clubs for professionals and non-professionals alike can often be found in cities. The Arts & Letters Club and the Heliconian Club are just two in Toronto.
And sometimes, you might just happen to know someone who runs a group. My colleague, Genevieve, for instance, runs virtual meetings and offers coaching services for writers. Registration opens up at the end of this week for the next group sessions.
When in doubt, start your own
Though there are lots of options out there, you might still have a particular vision in mind for what you want. If that’s the case, why not start your own group?
As a writer myself, I happen to have met lots of other writers in my travels. I’m almost positive that most of us know another writer who knows another writer and so on. Odds are, you already have the beginnings of a member list—you just don’t know it until you ask.
I’ve been a founding member of two writing groups now (one when I was in school and one at the Arts & Letters Club mentioned above), so take it from me, when the need arises, someone, or maybe a few people, tend to step in and fill the gap. There’s no reason it can’t be you.
Why stop at one?
If you’re really interested in building out your support network, there are sometimes benefits in joining or starting several groups. It just depends on your needs and how much capacity you have for extracurricular activities.
It never hurts to invite more people into your circle. You’ll get more voices and more perspectives to broaden your own horizons and, in this work, we tend to benefit from doing so.
Remember that having more commitments equals more demand on your time. If you’re not careful, anything can wind up becoming an excuse not to write, even when it’s intended to help us do that very thing. So take it easy, especially if you’re just starting out, and see if there’s a group out there that fits what you need right now. Take it slow and evaluate if it’s working for you before jumping into more.
It’s amazing when you find your community. Just make sure to set aside actual writing time for yourself!
Mary Kehoe provides structural, stylistic and copy editing services for a variety of written works through her agency, Elixir Editorial. From time to time she dabbles in her own writing projects which tend toward the speculative genre.
She is a member of both Editors Canada and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), as well as a founding member and former chair of the Toronto Arts & Letters Club writing group. A longtime lover of the English language, Mary is passionate about supporting writers on the journey to inspire the world.
