Writing groups provide motivation and support for new or struggling writers in a structured way, a secure way to enjoy positive feedback but also peer pressure to actually do something! They attract different people for different reasons but all are united in thinking that writing holds a key to something within. There's a sense of community but with feedback. For the tutor, there is an ever-growing humility, as previously un-nurtured talent is slowly released, like the carbs from an athlete's breakfast. Facilitation can be a wonderful thing.
Writing groups will not suit everyone. Some are dabbling in the writing process, some prefer to go it alone, some are there for the company, and some will find it does not serve their needs. One of the joys but also a problem for writing groups is that people develop their writing at different rates and in varying ways. It is hard for someone who feels ready to approach agents or publishers to maintain interest in the exercises that others find useful. Yet, for the tutor, you begin to know much more about the writers through their words than they are ever likely to tell you through a passing conversation. I'm a 'people person', not in the sense of huge social gatherings and masses of friends, but of being truly interested in what makes them tick.
Although I had writing, editing and publishing experience in the north-west, my own writing here in the south-west has evolved by happenstance. I started as a hyperlocal publisher with Bude People (Northcliffe Digital). With their restructuring and constant forging forward (and demise of the hyperlocal network) it did not last too long, but it swiftly developed within me a love of locality, and writing about it that I had no clue existed. In the new series After Life, the Ricky Gervais character complains about just writing a free newspaper that no one reads. I remember the old free print weeklies, with a story or two and a shipload of adverts which people used to line their cat litter trays. The difference with an online hyperlocal is there is a much higher content to advertising ratio, and the freedom to write all sorts of articles. It still suits my need to write daily - and the stats show that thousands of people DO read it.
From there, I was asked to write my Bude books (serendipity?) and then decided to write my forthcoming book, more of a personal research project. Suggestions were made about writing groups. I am a teacher and I can write - combining the two was a no brainer. Certainly, I enjoyed my writing groups. It cannot be said I ever made any money from them, but I did meet a wonderful group of people striving for creativity. Moving on still further, I am now to start regular freelance copywriting. The joy of freelance is that the work is uncertain, and you only get paid for what you do, so it focuses the mind wonderfully.
What happens to the writers?
Well, some are ready to fly. The confidence is still patchy, but it is much better to have an angsty writer than an over-confident one. If you think you know it all, you don't. If you think you've hit the heights, you haven't. Whatever your talent or interest, there is always more to learn. The writer who thinks they have 'made it' is a rare beast indeed. People write because they feel they have to, they have something they are bursting to tell, to share, to disseminate, or they simply love doing it. Ideally, it is both. We only get one life: enjoy it.
Can aspiring writers cope without a writing group? Yes, of course. They can still meet each other, share ideas, discuss progress, but writing is ultimately a lonely endeavour. No one else can do it for you. All that "just do it" and "write, write, write" advice is what it takes.
So, as my writing group days have come to an end for now, I can reflect upon the successes for the writers and me.
When people say things like: I now look back at my early writing and realise it needs a whole new revamp, that makes me smile, as it encapsulates their learning. When I see people struggling with their work but continuing all the same, I marvel at their sense of tenacity, and realise they really do want to write. When others overcome the 'things that get in the way' and begin to organise their writing so they create something substantial, that brings a warm glow, and when people finally develop the confidence to know that, yes, their writing at its best is worth reading, then it feels like a job well done.
People write amazing things in hostage situations, in the most terrible conditions, like concentration camps, prisons, World War I trenches and gulags. Writers usually have the benefit of a computer, a desk and a warm room. Go forth and produce!
