An Old Book
Surviving in a writers group takes talent and skill. Some people think that having a nice smile and pleasant comments will be good enough, but a writers group often needs more than that.
The most important part about joining or starting any writers group is to determine the level of professionalism of the group. This does not mean finding out if people are going to wear ties or not. The professionalism you should be interested in…is whether or not one needs to have been previously published before in order to join the group. This question is KEY and once you get your answer you need to dig further. Does the group view self publishing the same as more conventional methods? Has he group organizer been published before? Once you have these answers you will be able to more easily gauge your comfort levels with the group.
I organize a science fiction and fantasy writers group and whenever there is a new member I clearly state that we all are trying to get published eventually (or in my case, as soon as possible) with a printed hard-copy publisher. And that all of us are in the same boat and we want to share our work and get critiqued and sharpen our skills. It is extremely important to know what you are getting into before opening one’s self to what can be a very personal and yet heart wrenching and exposing experience. Whatever masks we wear in everyday life, a rough draft can remove a few of them within 30 seconds.
So something to think about is what kind of feedback does your group want? Is this a more beginners group for people to share work and mostly get cursory praise and encouragement, or is the group more critical and give feedback regardless of feelings or personal attachments? Both types of groups serve excellent functions, so it is important to determine what kind of feedback you need.
Let’s say you are in a critical group where the people are genuine and have good days and bad ones just like everyone else. The key is to have thick skin and take everything the group says with a few grains of salt. The next thing is that there is such a thing as trash feedback or critique. Simply repeating what you know or comprehend about the excerpt really does not benefit anyone. People want to either know either macro or micro feedback.
Respectively, macro feedback would be critique or impressions on how someone felt about the entire piece and its themes or setting. Or macro could be whether or not a character is compelling or not. Think big picture kind of stuff. People love this kind of feedback, especially on a rough draft because it can tell someone if they are on he right track or not. Now, if there is confusion, then definitely bring that up and discuss that. But simply giving a synopsis of what was just read is unnecessary, and is not critique at all.
Micro feedback is great also. This could be anything like, grammar or style issues. Suggestions on use of commas, or dialogue. Micro feedback is a good way to give specifics that can sharpen a piece. Sometimes giving micro feedback that the other members of the group disagree with is highly valuable. This is because everyone can discuss the method, like writing thoughts with italics vs indirect sentences. Sometimes the discussions can give greater insight into writing style and can shed light on misconceptions. Giving micro feedback should always be targeted at specific areas and pages, so don’t just say, “You use to many commas.” Give actual examples of where the author does something and then read it back to the group so everyone can benefit.
The same concept of giving specific examples during critiques is important for both micro AND macro feedback. This makes the person who shared the work feel like he or she is having the actual story critiqued, instead of the writer herself being knocked down a peg.
Another hugely important thing to think about when going to writers groups, is that if you can’t think of super insightful to say, it is perfectly okay to give a specific example of a sentence that you enjoyed or that worked for you as a reader. This is a great way to start a critique and not everyone may agree with you, so it can also spark discussion. Being positive about a piece is much superior to saying nothing, or else just regurgitating facts about a piece. But remember to be specific, a general, “I liked it,” has very little value. Tell us what quote sparked your interest, or perhaps a certain type of character or setting seemed fresh to you. What was something that if you were a literary agent or publisher, would attract or repel you from the piece? Things like that are great.
A huge tip for being part of a writers group, is that sometimes coming a little bit early can be a ton of fun. As a group organizer, I find that a few minutes before writers group, I really enjoy chatting about peoples’ weeks and writing experiences. This helps to build friendships and can help to establish trust. If there is no trust in a writers group, people can tell immediately and they will probably clam up.
Hopefully some of these tips were useful, and I wish you the best of luck and fun in all your writing endeavors!
-Tyler