How to Join a Writers' Group
As frequent readers of this blog will know, I did a presentation at Bread and Chocolate yesterday, for some law librarians. One of the questions that came up was about my writers' group - did I have one, how did it work, etc. After my presentation, another patron of the cafe came up to ask me for additional information about finding groups - it's a topic that many people find interesting.
I stumbled onto my writers' group. Way back, about ten years ago, I posted in an online forum (Orson Scott Card's Hatrack, maybe?) asking if anyone had ever taken any classes at the Writers' Center, an adult education facility in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. A woman posted with some information, and then she invited me to join her writers' group. She emailed me a date and time and place.
And she emailed me the chapters that she was having the group review at the next meeting - the opening scenes from an anti-death-penalty novel, involving violent death, lesbian S&M, and very naughty language.
The writing was excellent, but I became a bit worried. I mean, people get *killed* when they meet up with Internet friends. How did I know what would be waiting for me at the address I'd been given? How did I know *who* would be waiting for me? Were the chapters a coded warning? An invitation?
I phoned one of my law school study group partners and gave him all the information I had. I told him that I would phone him by no later than 5:00 that Sunday; if I didn't call, he was supposed to report my absence to the police. OK, so I was a bit of a drama queen, but I was really unnerved by the violence in the writing sample. And this was ten years ago, when the whole Internet thing was wilder and perceived-to-be-more-dangerous.
I showed up at the house and was greeted by a friendly, mother-like woman who was wearing a t-shirt with dolphins on it. I entered the sunlit living room of the hosts, and I was given a plate so that I could help myself to desserts from the side table. I met a dozen people who were all well-spoken, kind, everyday people. And when everyone decided to go out to dinner after the meeting, I sheepishly called my law school friend and told him all was well, and that he didn't need to get the police involved.
For other people looking to join a writers' group - if you have an independent bookstore in your area, check to see if they have message boards. If you don't have an independent, some of the large chains help groups come together, or serve as meeting places for groups. You can also check at your public library, or at adult education centers in your area. And if you don't connect with a group that way, there's always the Internet... :-)
Mindy, who laughs now, but was really unnerved at the time.
I stumbled onto my writers' group. Way back, about ten years ago, I posted in an online forum (Orson Scott Card's Hatrack, maybe?) asking if anyone had ever taken any classes at the Writers' Center, an adult education facility in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. A woman posted with some information, and then she invited me to join her writers' group. She emailed me a date and time and place.
And she emailed me the chapters that she was having the group review at the next meeting - the opening scenes from an anti-death-penalty novel, involving violent death, lesbian S&M, and very naughty language.
The writing was excellent, but I became a bit worried. I mean, people get *killed* when they meet up with Internet friends. How did I know what would be waiting for me at the address I'd been given? How did I know *who* would be waiting for me? Were the chapters a coded warning? An invitation?
I phoned one of my law school study group partners and gave him all the information I had. I told him that I would phone him by no later than 5:00 that Sunday; if I didn't call, he was supposed to report my absence to the police. OK, so I was a bit of a drama queen, but I was really unnerved by the violence in the writing sample. And this was ten years ago, when the whole Internet thing was wilder and perceived-to-be-more-dangerous.
I showed up at the house and was greeted by a friendly, mother-like woman who was wearing a t-shirt with dolphins on it. I entered the sunlit living room of the hosts, and I was given a plate so that I could help myself to desserts from the side table. I met a dozen people who were all well-spoken, kind, everyday people. And when everyone decided to go out to dinner after the meeting, I sheepishly called my law school friend and told him all was well, and that he didn't need to get the police involved.
For other people looking to join a writers' group - if you have an independent bookstore in your area, check to see if they have message boards. If you don't have an independent, some of the large chains help groups come together, or serve as meeting places for groups. You can also check at your public library, or at adult education centers in your area. And if you don't connect with a group that way, there's always the Internet... :-)
Mindy, who laughs now, but was really unnerved at the time.
As an aside, having met my husband online during the whole "Internet-people-are-axe-murderers" phase I can totally sympathize, especially since there was an internet-related attempted murder local to DH the week before we met.