Last night I attended a murder mystery play that was written by a member of my old writers’ group. Many friends from the old group were there to show their support, and most urged me to return to the monthly meetings. I haven’t been to a writers’ group meeting in over a year for a variety of reasons, one of the most significant being that I’m conflicted about how helpful they are.
One of the problems with writers critiquing the work of other writers is that each writer has his own voice and style (if you don’t have your own voice and you’re hoping to be successful in this game, good luck!). Whatever voice we write in is the one we like the best – otherwise, we wouldn’t use it, and we certainly wouldn’t be able to endure it through the writing of hundreds of pages. When we hear or read the work of other (especially unpublished) writers, it stands to reason that we are usually hearing a voice that is not our own, that we don’t like as much. There is the temptation to try to change another writer’s voice into something we like better – to have him tell his story the way we would have told it. That’s why agents often complain that manuscripts they receive from writers’ group members are a hodgepodge of different styles and voices.
This leads to another problem with writers’ groups. While they are probably most helpful in polishing second or third drafts, many writers share their works in progress, which can lead to disaster. The first draft is when most of our insecurities and self-doubt come to the forefront: Is this good enough? Will anyone care about this story? Will they like my characters? Do I even like my characters? It’s difficult to stay invested in a story before you’ve spent the required time and effort to finish it. Once you’ve written 500 pages about Ike and his dog, you know Ike pretty well and you’re more apt to stand your ground if someone insists you need to change his personality. During the first draft, things are a lot more tenuous.
My old writers’ group is filled with immensely talented people who mostly write for fun. The majority have never tried to get their work published, but if they put their minds to it, they certainly could. Every group attracts a few bad apples, though, and in our time we’ve experienced our share of egotistical know-it-alls who recite high school creative writing rules as if they’re the holy grail. The man who used to lead our group was a kind, soft-hearted gentleman. He cared a lot about what others thought, which made him especially vulnerable to the group’s critique and feedback.
At one meeting, he decided to share the first chapter of the new novel he was working on. His protagonist was a nurse who’d just discovered that her husband had given her AIDS. As she reels from the news, she immediately suspects that her husband is gay. One of the more opinionated members of the group (thankfully she moved to another country soon after) had a conniption. How dare the protagonist assume her husband is gay, just because he has AIDS! The critic then proceeded to lecture the writer on all the ways people can get AIDS, how prevalent it is among heterosexuals, etc. All the while, the poor man seemed to shrink smaller and smaller in his chair. A few of us argued for the protagonist’s right to think anything she pleased, even if it wasn’t true or unbiased. She could be completely homophobic, and that would be her right. And even if she was, that didn’t mean that the same went for her creator. Both sides argued their point passionately, with the end result being that the writer threw his manuscript in the garbage when he got home. He might have had a great story there, and now we’ll never know. In this case, the writing group was not helpful.
In my experience, you’ll meet three types of people at writers’ groups. There’s the Nice Writer, who is sweet and supportive. She will love everything you write. This feels good until you realize she loves everything everyone else does, too, which makes you start to question her honesty and/or taste after awhile. Then there’s the Know-It-All, whom we’ve already touched on. This person is also The Best Writer Who Ever Lived, except he’s not published, or if he is, it’s with a very small press. Perhaps a vanity one. He is there for three reasons: to get the ego strokes from The Nice Writers; to give the poor lesser-writers the benefit of his wisdom; and three–to hear himself talk. The third type is the most rare. This is the Helpful Writer. This person usually has more experience than you, or just a really good eye for editing. She can help you make your work better without making it sound like her own. You may find one of these Helpful Writers in your group. If you’re lucky, you’ll have two or three. Rarely are there more than that. If you think your entire group is comprised of Helpful Writers, chances are you’re mistaking Nice for Helpful.
However, there is another great advantage to being part of a writers’ group. It’s the simple camaraderie that comes from being with like-minded people. Writing can be the most isolating, lonely exercise in the world, and being able to discuss the challenges and triumphs with people who truly get it is priceless. Some of the closest friends a writer will ever have will inevitably be other writers. It makes all the Know-It-Alls and bad writing worth it. Hmm…maybe I will attend a meeting next month after all.
How about you? Ever been a member? And if so, what has your experience been like?
I find small writing groups much more helpful than large ones. 3-4 like-minded people all who are working hard to improve/learn more about their craft, with the goal of getting published. In my experience it doesn’t even matter if you’re writing in the same genre, as long as the other members have a good grasp of what makes good writing, and offer you a good balance of encouragement and helpful critique!
I was in a writers group (not the one you and I started out in) for a while that was good initially but eventually I came to see that these people wrote the same thing over and over again. It was also very poetry heavy and there was one know it all who spouted off whatever philosophy he’d heard at the latest writing course or workshop he had been to.
Then one day, one of the occasional memebers of our group essentially trashed something I wrote and for all intents and purposes, suggested I throw the whole thing in the garbage because it was worthless.
The funny aftermath of that is that I went out to Brandon to visit my writing mentor who coached me through MWG mentorship program and he made me have a bonfire party with the draft the manuscript that had her comments on it. (I’d been doing a reading with him and was constantly distracted by her negative biting comments in the margins). So her comments were burnt to the dust and I can’t quote her idiocity any more.
But I also can’t go back and do anything more with that manuscript.
I’m torn about writers groups as well for all the reasons you say. I buy into what Stephen King said in his book. You should stick with the one or two people you trust and never ever share draft one — at least not until it is completed.
I’ve learnt over time to take the feedback I think fits my vision and voice and ignore the feedback that doesn’t. But it takes confidence in your writing and it takes a good knowlege of how you work and where you write from to be able to do that. I think what draws a lot of people to writers groups is the fact that they are novices and they don’t have either.
Both very helpful comments. Thanks for posting about your own experiences with writer’s groups.
Polly, I completely agree that smaller groups work much better than larger ones, for a variety of reasons. We’re all so busy these days – who has the time to give detailed feedback on the work of ten (or more) other writers?
And Kim, it’s exactly that kind of snarkiness that has turned me off from being a gung-ho member of the local writing community. The group I belonged to was supportive, but in general there’s a lot of backlash if you don’t write the typical Canadiana, pro-Winnipeg literary prose, and I certainly don’t!
Hey Holly, Robson here, once again your writing reflects the articulation that I remember well from Crea Comm days, and your blog is professional and aesthetically appealing, great job!!
Thanks so much, Robson! I’m really glad we’re back in touch. Feel free to post a comment any time. Love to hear your thoughts.
I’ve been a part of two terrible writing groups, and two good writing groups.
The first terrible writing group clustered around a published author and took every word she said as if it were holy, and then this entire group trashed each other’s writing.
The second writing group – one of the good ones – came out of a writing class. We all shared work. Most were helpful. The only reason I left this group – I moved.
The third writing group – a terrible one – trashed my writing seconds after I shared it. Thankfully, I shared something that I had shared with my previous writing group and my writing instructor. It was my “test” of that group and they failed the test, not me. I didn’t go back.
The fourth writing group (I think it was good) was started by me. I opted to start a “writing practice” group. We gathered together and wrote to prompts against the clock, shared if we wished to, and gave each other extremely mild, if any, critique. I only stopped meeting with this group because my schedule went crazy.
The last group may not have been a huge “help” to my writing skill, but we did encourage each other to keep writing, to keep moving forward and getting words on the page. Sometimes, that’s not a bad group to have.
Thanks for commenting, Tyrean, and welcome to my blog! It sounds like you’ve really run the gamut when it comes to writers’ groups.
The last one sounds really interesting. I’m in a successful group now where we discuss our challenges and goals. This has been my longest-running group, and one of the reasons it works is that it fits into the busy lifestyles of working writers. We don’t read each other’s work for critique unless one of us needs an urgent opinion, but we enjoy the camaraderie of sharing the writing life with others who get it.