Writing Groups

[aggienaut]

   "Aand I won't tell you more about this piece because if we do any sharing or workshopping afterwards--" I was saying when I noticed everyone shaking their heads.
   "Nope"
   "No"
   "We don't do that"
   "Uh, okay" I finished a bit flustered "well nevermind then."

   I went to a writing group last Saturday. I was excited because most writing groups here are during the day on weekdays but this one was Saturday morning down in the beachside town of Torquay about an hour away. Apparently sharing what you've just worked on is strictly verbotten there though which seems odd. So we all wrote in silence for two hours and at the end discussed how it went in general terms. Then the organizer went on a little tangent discussing with the group why it was entirely impractical for anyone to share their work because it would create a "logistical nightmare" and no one would ever get home or get any work done if it cut into the writing time. ::eyeroll: In retrospect I really wish I had grabbed the two people who were looking at me like they really did want to read my piece and asked them if they wanted to have an unofficial writing share after.

   Anyway, in two hours the net product of my writing was minus one word. I feel it was actually quite productive. Working on finalizing a piece for a 700 word limit writing contest, I started at 697 words, went up to 707, down to 690, and finally back up to 696. The final word, "transformative" I asked three different people later in the day if it should stay in or not, they all said they were leaning towards leaving it out, which convinced me to leave it in. (I think it has more to do with the weight balance of the paragraph than the inherent meaning of the word, which is indeed sufficiently implied anyway). Anyway, you can see the piece submitted and posted here, I forgot that the submission form would butcher the paragraph indentations. Why do so many online writing forms make it so hard to tab-in the first word of paragraphs?? Paragraphs look awful without indented beginnings.

   I did post to the Birregurra Arts Group facebook page asking if anyone wanted to form a local writing group but after implausibly getting no comments at all (this community is a bit artsy surely there'd be SOMEone) I looked and noted its one of those facebook pages where the "posts to page" are kind of hidden away and no one ever sees them, so I asked the page if they could pose the question as one of their own posts but as yet haven't heard anything.

   In unrelated news there's currently a Livejournal Idol poll afoot but I'm not in it this time. But there was one entry really liked and it's actually in the elimination zone right now. So I encourage you to read hwango's lovely entry the kind of touches on bees in a cute fairytale kind of way, and then vote for it. (:


And here's an unrelated picture of Cato driving a tractor this morning.

Comments

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Nice kitty! My writing group shared. We write on our own time and use the meeting to share for feedback, share writerly experiences, news about events, etc.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Is Cato out to search for tuna?

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Sharing is everything.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

that's odd. None of the writing groups I've belonged to ever had a no sharing rule, quite the opposite.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I thought it was really kind of weird

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Go Cato.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

He's getting ambitious, I see!

Though I think that "seat" is probably better suited to his standing on it than to anyone trying to sit on it. Looks uncomfortable.

What on earth is the purpose of a writing group where you write side-by-side by do not discuss actual writing?

Glad you enjoyed hwango's story for the write-off. I really did, too. :D

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I REALLY liked hwangos entry. It's in a small category of lji entries that I've been telling people totally outside of lj they need to read. It's just the right combination of bee related and cute! I can't believe it's looking like it's going to be eliminated. Or, looking at the time, it probably already has!

[newwaytowrite.livejournal.com]

I have belonged to a group that didn't share the work it was really more about self publishing and the odd guest doing a topic like POV, dialogue and the like. I just liked the people so I went for about a year. And in another writing group people were flake about attendance or tried to take over the group. Eventually it was down to three people and we all parted ways.

It was a bit odd as was a book club where people didn't read the same book or another book club which people skim read the books or downright didn't read the book and would rather visit and drink wine. Seriously who needs a book club to visit or drink wine? A friend and I started that group and someone decided to hijack it so both of us left it.

[richaarde.livejournal.com]

It feels like a no-sharing rule would defeat the whole purpose of a writing group. What’s the point of writing if nobody is allowed to read what you wrote?