I’ve
recently joined a new writing group in my area after a long layoff during which
I was working alone. Writing groups have always been tremendously helpful
to me, providing me with valuable feedback while giving me deadlines to work
towards. The deadlines give me the excuse I need to push writing higher up my
to-do list and to justify pushing other things further down. Yes, I
need to sew on some buttons and do my long-neglected filing, but the writing
group is waiting to hear from me and it meets Monday next.
Without
my first group, I never would have finished The
Province of the Imagination, and my second nurtured the early phases of Albion’s Millennium. The members of that
second group also saved my bacon when our house was broken into and my laptop
and back-up thumb drive were both stolen complete with the only copies of all my novel chapters. I was
utterly distraught, but much to my relief my colleagues had saved the drafts I’d
shared with the group, thus averting a nightmarish disaster and earning my endless gratitude.
The
only problem with writing groups is that, in return for all the help you
receive, you must also put back in an equal amount of effort to help others
with their projects. When I say it’s a problem, I just mean in terms of time
since I genuinely love reading the fruits of other people’s imaginations. Reading drafts in advance and making careful notes can
be quite time-consuming if you do it with the right amount of commitment. But
this new group I’ve joined – on the kind invitation of my talented neighbor, the
poet and short story writer Sibbie O’Sullivan – takes a different approach. It
meets every two weeks (mostly), and we each bring along whatever we’ve been
working on between meetings and read it aloud to each other.
I
was a little skeptical at first, wondering if the immediacy of the format would
be capable of eliciting considered feedback, but I have been very pleasantly
surprised. So far it’s proved to be an extremely useful and time-efficient way
to get feedback and encouragement on my work and for me to make my own small contribution
to the work of others.
And this
new development has unleashed a tidal wave of inspiration in me. I’ve been turning
out a couple of short stories a week and jotting down a constant influx of
ideas and first lines. I even take a pad and pen into the bathroom with me so I
can jot down the ideas that come to me in the shower before I forget them. I've been going wherever my imagination decides to take me. There’s a wife confronting her husband’s
mistress after his violent death, a woman seeing her dead baby in Sainsbury’s,
a bitter man facing a divorce and failing to understand how he’s alienated his
wife throughout their marriage. I hadn’t written short stories for years and
had pretty much decided I didn’t know how, but since starting with this group
I’ve already had two stories accepted for publication. My personal spring has
sprung!
With
thanks to all the very talented women with whom I’ve shared bread, wine, and our
mutual passion for telling stories.
