I love the Orange County – Science Fiction and Fantasy Weekly Writer’s Group. We have been meeting since August 2009 and it is really a lot of fun and the gem of my week. The people in the group are great and four of us have been coming since the beginning of the group. We meet every Monday we discuss and critique our recent writing works of Science Fiction and/or Fantasy. It all started when I joined the Meetup.com group called, The Orange County Writers Critique Group. I attended one of their Free-For-All meetups where I met with eight other writers and the Head Organizer, Russel Traughber. We each read a small portion of our work. And Russel told us to tell the group a little about ourselves and what our goals were. So when I read my piece I said that I recently wrote a 250 handwritten page Fantasy-Adventure novel and I wanted to connect with other Fantasy or Sci-Fi writers. Well, after the Meetup, Russel told me that if I wanted to, I could start my own specialized Meetup-Group that was about Science Fiction and Fantasy. So I gladly accepted his offer and was lucky to meet someone at the Free-For-All who wanted to start the group up with me.
So I created the group after Russel made me an Assistant Organizer for The Orange County Writers Critique Group. I then got into e-mail and telephone contact with the person I met from the Free-For-All and she was the first to RSVP for the group. It was really exciting having the first meeting because several people RSVP’d for my Orange County – Sci Fi and Fantasy Writers Group within hours of its posting. That was really encouraging and so I made a flyer to give to everyone that described the group’s objectives and requirements. The flyer was a good idea because it gave me something to read from in order to break the ice with everyone. After I read the flyer we talked about ourselves and shared some of our writing goals and experiences and what we wrote about. We met outside and talked for hours and had a great time.
Our group originally met outside of a Peet’s Coffee, but we eventually moved to an indoor setting because it got cold and dark. Unfortunately we weren’t able to meet inside Peet’s because it was just too busy in there and we could rarely find enough seats. So we eventually moved to a 24 hour Jack in the Box. At first I wasn’t sure if meeting at a Jack in the Box would be cool, but it was really convenient and they served drinks and food and never bothered us for having our meetings.
Having a weekly Meetup was a good decision because of several reasons. First of all, meeting every week is good for writing discipline. If you can write every week and share it with others and get good feedback, your craft will probably improve. I always left the meetings feeling energized even though we would usually meet for 2 to 3 hours. I know it sounds kind of long for a writer’s group meeting but actually the time really flies. We have fun talking about writing and there isn’t a single meeting where we don’t have a good laugh about something. Meeting weekly is great because it makes you create. It you come all the way to a meeting and don’t bring something, that’s fine, you brainstorm or critique other people’s stuff. But if you come without bringing something a couple meetings in a row, you start to feel like you are missing the entire point of coming to the writer’s group. And if people don’t bring something for 2 weeks in a row or more, I usually directly ask the person what’s up. As writers, we need to support each other and make sure that we are doing what we really want to do, and in the case of a writer, that’s either creating works or else getting our creations published. There isn’t a whole lot else.
I can easily say that my writing skills have improved tremendously because of our weekly writer’s group. The feedback that I get from my friends at the group is priceless. And what’s great is that our wrtier’s group is completely free. I don’t charge for it because Jack in the Box doesn’t charge me for holding the meeting so it’s chill times for everyone. Being able to discuss writing and bring in new work on a consistent weekly basis has been excellent for me, and has given me the confidence to work harder on my writing for overidon.com.
If you are a writer in Orange County and are looking to join a writer’s group, I recommend you check out The Orange County Writers Critique Group. Russel is a great organizer and if you talk to him at one of the Free-For-All meetups, he will point you in the right direction on other meetups that might work for you. If you live outside the Orange County area and you are looking for a writer’s group, then you should try looking around on Meetup.com for a group in your area. But PLEASE, whenever you join a group of people make sure to be safe and use your brain when meeting with people you don’t know. Be careful and make sure that you meet in a safe, public place and do a little research into the group before you join it. It is good to join a group that is larger and well established because you can contact the Organizer and get information on the group.