The Benefits Of Joining A Writing Group

This post was originally published on May 4, 2018. It was updated on December 9, 2022.

I have been an active member of a local writer’s group for over eight years now. And it’s one of the best things I’ve done for my writing career.

We are mostly a critique group, but we do other various activities as well, and most of all, I think we like and respect each other as people/writers and support one another in various ways. Oh, we also have fun together.

Here’s what I’ve gotten out of my writing group:

Feedback on my work

The bulk of what we do together is to critique each other’s work, and while I’m cautious about changing too much of my story based on the feedback I get, it’s good to get a reaction to what I’m writing. What do people like about it? What do people think could be worked on? Are there certain things coming up over and over again? It’s also good practice to have to sit and listen to other people react to your writing without saying anything. (We have a critique structure where the person getting critiqued does not respond while the critique is going on.)

As writers, we have to get used to people judging and evaluating our work in public, which can be really uncomfortable! A writer’s group provides a good environment in which to practice that so, hopefully, you can develop a little detachment.

The chance to collaborate on projects together

As a group, we have published three short story anthologies. This has been a great chance to work on large projects together. From writing and critiquing the stories to editing them, to coming up with cover designs and creating ebook and paperback files, to marketing, we’ve learned a lot and been able to count on each member’s unique experience and skills to complete the anthologies.

New Information/Skills/Ideas

Part of our meetings is often dedicated to some topic that the meeting leader will present/discuss. It could range from a topic of craft like writing great dialogue or creating conflict. It could be a more practical topic like discussing writing goals for the year or how to beat writer’s block. Whatever the topic may be, we all benefit from the range of experiences and knowledge each individual member has as we share stuff with the group.

Opportunities and Events

One of the really cool things we’ve done together as a group is host open-mic literary nights at a local outdoor venue. They are a great opportunity for members to do readings from their work and for us to promote our anthologies. Before our first open-mic night, I had never done a public reading before, and it was a great experience. I got some good practice and learned some new things. And it was just fun.

Another thing we’ve done in the past is held specific meetings for NaNoWriMo, whether that was a planning session or holding write-ins. One of the best things about NaNoWriMo is the feeling of community you have while doing it, and being able to share that sense of community with writers in my writing group made it feel even stronger.

Support, Camaraderie, and Fun

Sometimes it’s just nice to have a group of people to do things with, and that’s doubly true for writers since writing is mostly an individual activity. Having other people who understand what it’s like is great support, and it doesn’t feel so lonely and isolating.

During the holidays, we generally do a white elephant book party, which is a lot of fun and gives us a break from critiquing. We all bring books from our bookshelves (so we don’t buy anything new), and there’s always a lot of stealing and double stealing, and triple stealing that happens. In the end, we all end up with a new book or two.

We even held one of our meetings at a local distillery after they contacted us about the possibility. We used this meeting to practice our readings for one of the upcoming literary nights that was mentioned above. We were also able to do a tour of the distillery and a tasting before the meeting started. It was a nice change of pace and fun to connect with a local business.

Tips For Success

I’m one of the co-organizers of the group and have been for several years. We’ve found that certain things work really well for increasing engagement and keeping things running smoothly.

• Yearly Dues – This is a very small amount. I think right now it’s $5.50, but it serves a couple of purposes. One, it covers the fees Meetup charges us for hosting our group on their site. But also, it creates a very small barrier to group membership, which we’ve found increases engagement. Also, it keeps numbers down. At one time, we had over 200 members in the group, the vast majority of which never even showed up to a meeting. Now we have a much smaller number, but more people are active.
• An open invitation for anyone to take a leadership role – Anyone who wants to lead a meeting, start a new meeting (on a particular topic), organize a project or event, or basically do anything for the group is welcome to do so. There are quite a few of us who have some sort of leadership role within the group, and this works great! Instead of power being concentrated in the hands of a few, it’s spread around, and this also contributes quite a bit toward engagement within the group. We all feel ownership.
• The “Dome of Silence” – Our critique structure goes a long way toward fostering respect and stability within the group. Feeling comfortable with one another is paramount to being able to discuss each other’s work productively, and for newcomers, it’s important to show that we take this seriously. For our critiques, we give the writer being critiqued a minute or so to introduce their work, and then we lower the “dome of silence” onto them wherein the critique happens, and they cannot speak. Afterward, the dome is lifted, and the writer can take a few minutes to respond to anything they wish. We’ve had very few problems with overly harsh critiques or personal attacks, so I think this works well for us.

So there you have it. If you’re interested in finding a writing group local to you, I’d suggest checking Meetup.com. And if there isn’t a group nearby, maybe you should start one. 🙂

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Amanda Linehan is an Independent Author, Coach, and INFP. She is the author of Productivity for INFPs: How To Be Productive Within Your Natural Rhythms and has published 16 titles since 2012, including five novels. Since 2017, she has run her author business full-time. Get exclusive access to her INF Summitt Interview on fiction writing, self-publishing, and being self-employed by joining the For INFPs newsletter here.