Choosing a Writer's Group, Part I

Hi Valerie,
I took your writing class a few years ago and was working on a children’s book at the time. I’ve finished that book and now am writing a YA. I’d love to join a writer’s group. Do you have any suggestions of where I should start? Thanks so much.
Terry H.
Thanks, Terry, that’s a great question. Joining a writer’s group is an excellent way to keep on track with your writing. Groups can provide you with feedback on your manuscript progress as well as help you maintain a consistent writing schedule.

The first thing I can tell Terry and anyone else in her position is that there are essentially three distinct types of groups: professional organizations; critique groups; and writing “support” groups (for lack of a better term). Professional groups are organized somewhat along corporate lines with a president, a board of officers, bylaws, and the range of the group can be state- if not nation-wide or even international. In Terry’s case I would recommend she join up with a group such as The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. If her YA is perhaps a romance, joining Romance Writers of America would be a smart move too. And because Terry lives in the Atlanta area, she might like to also become a member of Georgia Writers.

The wonderful thing about these organizations and others like them is there really is at least one for every genre or region you can think of. The only possible drawback to joining might be the membership fees. That said, dues often include a subscription to a newsletter or magazine, and members should receive discounts to conferences and other events—events with editors, celebrity authors, workshops, and all sorts of good things only available through that particular organization.

Critique groups are frequently made up of members who belong to the same pro organizations described above. Not only do members hold a common interest in a particular genre or theme, but they probably all met each other at a conference or regional meeting to begin with! However, it isn’t necessary to think you have to belong to the larger group first. The most important criteria is whether you feel you can receive a helpful critique of your work from the group and you feel comfortable with the other members.

Critique groups work best when they are based on the premise that members will bring a certain amount of unpublished manuscript pages to the meetings and everyone participates equally in the critiquing. One of the best critique groups I ever belonged to met every two weeks for an 8-hour session (we brought our lunch). We were all writing novels at the time so members brought copies of their current chapter to each meeting. The person being critiqued read his or her manuscript pages aloud while the others followed along, pen in hand, making notes on typos or awkward sentences or just things that drove them crazy. When the reading was finished, we went around in a circle and discussed our notes. Then we gave the marked-up copies back to the writer being critiqued. It was a long day but oh, did we learn. And write. The screenwriting group I belong to now doesn't have the luxury of an 8-hour day and we meet in the evening. To save time we email our manuscripts to each other for critiquing at home. Then we bring our notes to the meetings for discussion.

My freewrting/support group is a whole 'nother kind of animal. Not only do we forego critiquing, we use the meetings as a time to experiment. Our format is simple but effective: as soon as we’re settled with coffee (we meet at a local bookstore cafe), we choose a writing prompt from whatever’s handy, e.g. a book title, a mood, or something already selected from a magazine cut-out. We then write on that topic in silence for 20 minutes. When the time’s up, we go around in a circle and read our pages. After that we spend a few minutes sharing personal or professional news, followed by the reading and sharing of our bi-weekly “assignments.” These are based on a prompt or theme chosen at the last meeting. Topics range from the philosophical, “What is art for?” to the evocative, “Into the woods…” We limit ourselves to five pages each so our meetings don’t go on too long.

Lately we’ve had the wonderful idea of including illustration to go with our writing. Members have been painting, collaging, drawing, photographing…it’s been thrilling to see how far we can go beyond words. We also welcome any genre or form of writing, from screenplay to poetry to personal essay. This year we’re doing most of our work in art journals to more easily accommodate both writing and artwork at the same time. I love it!

But what if you’re thinking, well, this sounds very nice but I don’t live anywhere near other writers, or, I’ve tried a couple of critique groups and just didn’t feel “right” about being there. I hear you loud and clear. Next post I’ll address these concerns and discuss how to start a group of your own while avoiding that great time and energy drain: the toxic group.

Tip of the Day: If you haven’t already, do consider joining a writers’ group. The most important thing is to decide which type is best for you.

Finishing Line

One of my favorite classes I teach is called “Write that Novel (and Finish it Too!)". It’s always been a strong belief of mine that the only books readers want to buy and read are the finished ones, and that probably holds true for agents and editors as well. But like many writers, I have to admit that not every one of my manuscripts is finished. And guess what? They’re the ones I haven’t sold.

The problem came home to me the other day when I was inventing excuses to explain my reluctance to work on the current WIP and wondering if I really had to write it (you mean I do have to figure out those old family connections and why my MC is so terrified of change and…?). Well, you get the picture. After the heady fun of first draft write-whatever-comes-to-mind, second drafts can feel like pure slog and I wasn’t in the mood for work.

While I was wishing the manuscript would write itself, I suddenly thought about my most embarrassing unfinished project to date; not a manuscript but a sweater. Some time before Christmas I started to knit for my husband a fairly simple (or so it seemed) pullover. And then some time before New Year’s I stopped; the reason being that I didn’t know how to begin decreasing for the sleeves. Every time I tried to read the instructions in the knitting manual the words just turned to squiggles and I couldn’t understand any of it. It was as if the entire pattern was written in secret code and I didn't have the code book.

Thinking I would return to it "later," I left it neatly folded on a chair. Except later never came and even with my husband making little jokes: “Is that a cat or a sweater on that chair?” (we don’t have a cat) I managed to avoid any knitting whatsoever until I got stuck on my manuscript.

Last Sunday while I was trying to decide what to do with 200 pages of what seemed like sheer drivel (throw it in the trash?) I thought I should take a look at the sweater—I was that desperate to avoid writing. I went to the chair where it had been folded for a good two months and discovered a spider had taken up where I had left off, weaving an incredibly complex and strong tubular web right across the entire top row. Fitting right in with the whole abandonment metaphor, the web was empty, the spider having moved on and by the dusty look of it, a while ago.

I stood there with what in truth was a very nice and neatly knitted piece of the back and decided that I simply had to find out what to do next. I thought if I began now I could have the sweater finished by the start of next winter, oh happy thought, or worse case scenario, next Christmas. Yes, I would do it.

It took a morning of bright light, strong coffee, and utter silence, but in the end I successfully deciphered the pattern and knitted to the point that my confidence returned and I was able to complete nearly six more inches. Strangely, my manuscript also became a lot more attractive to me. When I put my knitting down and returned to the computer, I was able to see a way out of my current chapter dilemma and how to get back on track.

Later that day I went to my writer’s group and on the way driving there I realized the main reason we leave things unfinished is because we don’t know what to do, and not knowing what to do leads to fear, mainly fear of failure. With that is the unreasonable notion that we’re supposed to figure it all out by ourselves or by magic, a kind of ta-dah moment when everything becomes clear with no effort or research on our part. To understand my knitting pattern I had to take the time to be quiet, read the directions, and experiment until I got it right. The same goes for my manuscript. It’s impossible to know whether Chapter Five should be Chapter Seventeen or vice versa if I don’t try putting those arrangements down on paper. And if I’m stuck or need help, all I need to do is ask—either a writer friend, or look up my question on-line or in one of the several great how-to books I own. There are no secret codes. All it takes is a little effort and a whole lot of willingness to be wrong for the answer to appear, usually right on the page in front of us.

Tip of the day: What creative project or manuscript have you left unfinished, and why? Go dig it out of its hiding place and resolve to make a fresh start. If you’re stuck, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Once you have some answers and solutions, dive back in as soon as you can.

New Blog Award--Lucky 7

It's true--the best things in life aren't "things." Last week I received a blog award (above) from my friend and fellow author, Shawn Murray . The award was especially meaningful to me because Shawn was one of the first writers I ever knew to have a blog. I've always been impressed by her discipline and dedication to her craft, so it's thrilling to have her input on my own efforts. Thank you, Shawn! For this particular award, the requirements are that I share 7 pieces of info about myself and then choose 7 blogs I feel deserve the award too. I'll start with me (yes, it's all about me!!):

1. My preferred writing tool is a Waterman fountain pen filled with violet, turquoise, or brown ink depending on my mood.
2. I studied art history at the National Gallery in London for two years and attended lectures anywhere from three to seven days a week.
3. My bachelor's degree is from Auckland University in New Zealand and I majored in Spanish with an emphasis on Spanish film and literature (we were a very tiny department).
4. I want to go to Japan. Badly.
5. I'm a serious minimalist. My ideal wardrobe fits into a medium-sized suitcase and I only have one small bookcase. Excess or unused "stuff" makes me nervous.
6. I'm a vegetarian and never can follow a recipe, much preferring to invent my own.
7. I love Formula One motor racing and cannot wait for the new season to start.

Okay, enough about me. Now to hand out my awards:

1. http://eugeniaalvarez.wordpress.com/ Eugenia's posts are in Spanish and despite my terribly neglected language skills, the first thing I noticed when I visited her blog is that she writes straight from the heart. I highly recommend everyone getting a English/Spanish dictionary and following along because what Eugenia writes is worth reading.
2. http://olivosartstudio.blogspot.com/ Claudia and Sergio Olivas are two artists from Chile and Mexico (blog is in English). Fantastic artwork and much inspiration for newbie artists such as myself.
3. http://dmsolis.blogspot.com/ Diane Solis's blog is new to me and I wish I had known about it much sooner. Her blog is a work of art and filled with good information and writing prompts.
4. http://dolcebellezza.wordpress.com/ Another blog I only recently discovered and one that concentrates on reading and thoughtful book recommendations. Many of my favorite authors are featured here. This is also another blog that is lovely simply to "look at."
5. http://naptimewriter.blogspot.com/ I admire writer Amber Lough and her persistence to stay in the creative zone despite the challenges of raising two little kids still in footie pajamas. Great writing tips, great sense of humor.
6. http://zigzagpaz.blogspot.com/ Pamela Anne Zolkov has just published one of the best books I've read in a long time: Zigzag Paz. I'm still reading and hope to post an interview with Pam as soon as I'm finished. Wish I had a book award to give her too!
7. http://karilonning.blogspot.com/ Kari is a professional basket artist. Her blog is filled with wonderful photos of both her work and scenes from nature. Always makes me want to start yet another creative adventure.

So that's my list! Thank you again to Shawn Murray and thank you to my award recipients for sharing the art of life.

Tip of the Day: Please take the time to visit and read these great blogs. You'll be glad you did.

Take Twelve

Here’s the best piece of writing advice I’ve heard in a long time: no matter how busy, tired, overwhelmed, sick, depressed, swamped, apathetic, or blocked you are, just write twelve lines. That’s all. Just twelve. But write those twelve lines no matter what.

I love this tip because not only does it work to help keep my WIP in shape in spite of a crummy day, but it’s saved me from feeling that much sicker, more depressed, or more swamped during the times I would previously have thought writing one word was impossible.

Once I started using this technique I discovered I couldn’t stop; even on the good days I began to learn new uses for just twelve sentences. Best of all, the very nature of “write only 12” made my writer self turn all rebellious and eager to keep writing, going for twelve paragraphs or even twelve pages simply to prove I could.

Now I find myself using this trick several times during the day (or night!) regardless of a jammed appointment book or time constraints. Favorite uses of it so far include:

Brainstorming. List 12 “what-ifs” for problematic scenes or chapters. 12 possible actions to include in scene or chapter. 12 lines of dialogue. 12 specific details. 12 character traits. 12 possible character goals or motivations. 12 marketing opportunities. 12 positive affirmations to keep writing. 12 things to add to my gratitude list. 12 possible titles for the WIP. 12 ideas to blog or tweet about. 12 points to cover in a new blog post. 12 points about a book I liked, loved, or hated for review. 12 writing prompts for writer’s group.

Flash fiction or freewriting. Write: a 12-line story. A 12-line poem. A 12- line screenplay. A 12-line letter to the editor.

Why limit the technique to writing when I’m pressed for time? What about: 12 rows of knitting; 12 lines to a drawing; 12 quick photos; 12 magazine cutouts ready for collage.

There’s something special about the number twelve: twelve months to the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve dancing princesses… It’s a number that resonates deep in our creative and cultural unconscious. Which is why it may be the perfect number for getting something done when you feel at your most lost.

Tip of the Day: The easiest way to write just 12 on a bad or any day is to get your notebook, number the lines 1-12 with about 3-4 spaces in between and keep that page open beside you at all times. Every chance you get, write down a line. Don’t worry about making sense or keeping your thoughts “in order.” Fill in the blanks and rearrange or use where you can later.

What Does Your Writer Self Need Right Now?

For me it’s sleep. I never seem to get enough of it. Or when I do, I dream too much, waking up feeling like I've been assaulted by endless action movies. A few meetings back, my writer’s group took on the challenge of freewriting from the prompt “sleep falls" without really knowing where it would lead. For me the word "sleep" was prompt enough to start writing.

The following passage is what appeared on the page after thirty minutes. Just like when I read it aloud at our meeting, this is the unedited raw version and uses the word “all” an awful lot. This in itself is interesting to me. I find word repetition is often a good indicator of some other important theme we want to write and think about. But that’s a topic for another day and as the great writing coach, Emily Hanlon, said to me once when I was asked to read aloud in one of her workshops and I couldn’t stop qualifying: “Shut up and read!”

Sleep falls like a kid glove, brushing across the children’s faces. Put to bed by their nannies, their amahs, they sleep like the abandoned battlefield dead, arms sprawled, faces averted, small hands loosely holding toys and the corners of favorite blankets. Their dreams are innocent: “I was being chased by a gorilla.” “I forgot to bring my homework to school.” “I was at a birthday party.” They sleep from a distance and they sleep alone. The music and voices of grand parties, their parents’ affairs, the shouting after the fourth gin and tonic, the children hear none of it and all of it. Sometimes they move; eyelids twitching as moonlight falls across their hair, their feet, their discarded toys. All is waiting for when they wake up and say, “I had the strangest dream.” But it wasn’t just any dream. It was the stuff of day and nightmare, the hidden voice and message that will follow them subtly, invisibly through all the days of their adult lives. “I had the strangest dream.”

I have never fallen asleep where I fell. All of my life I have had to know where I am. I have to have the same night time rituals: washing my face, brushing my teeth, my hair, setting out the morning’s work, thinking of what I will wear to work, locking doors, turning out the lights, waiting for sleep to fall upon me. I don’t sleep easily or well. I think of too many things, things undone, unfinished, not even started. I see myself as a partial insomniac; I crave sleep like others crave wealth or fame. Yet I keep myself from napping (too restless, too guilty, too busy). I dream too much, volumes and shelves of stories, reels of film, all meaningless. For awhile I tried recording my dreams. The amount of detail bored me.

When I was small I had a bed I pretended was a boat. I would steer it through the confusion and troubled waters of my early childhood. Later I inherited my parents’ old double bed and I would sleep lost in the wide middle of forbidden territory, the sheets pulled to my chin, the streetlights invading my first series of peculiar dreams I can remember to this day. Once I dreamed of going to a house in the forest. Jars of dried herbs and strange potions lined the walls. And I knew whoever owned the small house was planning to kill me. I woke in terror and the images have never left me.

Dreams are the place we can never truly share. “You have to have been there,” is the best we can do. I never liked the idea of death being a kind of sleep. Imagine all those dreams crowding in for eternity and no real way to make them stop. My mother would not let me say the prayer, “If I should die before I wake.” I wanted to die before I waked. It sounded exciting and easy, easier than navigating my way through a world I found incomprehensible at seven. It was similar to when I would stand against the mirror for hours, willing myself to fall through the glass, imagining for brief minutes at a time that I had actually accomplished my goal of stepping into a warped reality that no matter how backward had to be better than the one I lived. That is how I envisioned a sleep-like death. Anything was better than being made to survive an unwanted life.

Now I do my best to appreciate both life and sleep, though not without question. Every few days or months or maybe even minutes I wonder what it’s all for and I’ll never be satisfied with “God’s plan,” or it’s solely to make other people happy. Sometimes I imagine I will be walking down the street, a busy street, a bustling sunny happy street and I’ll simply be struck by the end of my life and will fall like a glove to the pavement: gently, suddenly, magnificently and that will be that. I try to keep my papers in good order so my survivors are not too befuddled by pages and pages of the type of things I’m writing here. I want to sleep, I want to work, the wanting both exhausts and exhilarates me. Perhaps it is as the philosophers say: Life is but a dream; and maybe the thing I long for is to finally wake up, to rise from my bed like Jesus commanded, rise and walk and never look back; to forget everything and most especially sleep—
Tip of the day: Write about the thing your writer self needs most. It could be sleep, it could be time, it could be someone to read your writing with a smile and a warm heart. Whatever it is, freewrite about it for at least thirty minutes, maybe an hour. And then go get some sleep; you deserve it.

Starting the Serious Revision. Seriously.

This week I took the first steps toward revising a book-length manuscript I completed in 2008. Why the long break? Well, one reason is I like to put drafts away for a while before I tackle revision. In this case a little over a year seemed just about right. Another is I have had such a good time freewriting these past and many months that I simply wanted to stay in the zone, exploring and experimenting with a variety of genres and forms. I wasn’t ready to come inside and stop playing. But now with a fairly hefty body of work behind me (a novella, two novels, a nonfiction book, two screenplays, and a collection of short stories), it’s time to get serious and call out the official manuscript clean-up crew. Except there’s one big problem; there’s only one person on the crew and I’m it.

I knew in advance this day was coming; in fact, I set it out in my writer’s business plan under the goals section as part of my Big 5. To kick off this grand plan and perhaps test the waters a bit I chose to work on the novella. It’s my first foray into historical fiction, paying more than a passing tribute to my childhood writing hero, Edgar Allen Poe. So far the manuscript doesn’t have a working title beyond The Gothic Novella but that will do fine; titles get changed anyway and right now my focus is 100% on creating a polished manuscript worthy of any title at all.

On Monday I began my initial read-through of the manuscript to make sure I had my important scenes in order as well as the chapter line-up that made the most sense to me. I especially paid attention to the places where I need to add more writing. These are mainly transitional scenes I’ll have to write to help tie my plot points together. My self-imposed deadline to have a submission-ready manuscript in the mail to an editor is May 31, 2010. Every day that I can I intend to work on a chapter: retyping it into Microsoft Word, adding fresh lines or small scenes where necessary, smoothing out the rough edges. I’ve given myself enough room to do this several times for at least three drafts, maybe more.

In a few minutes I’m going to take the plunge and start typing my way to a real second draft. I confess to being nervous; it’s been a long time since I rewrote an entire book. My over-riding reaction is to be a neurotic version of the three wise monkeys: close my eyes and ears and hold my breath until the book rewrites itself. But I have a feeling that won’t work very well. Besides, the real irony is I do love revision work once I’m into it. There’s a nice sense of order and security once the plot and characters have been set in place and I know my daily writing routine is simply to make them shine. So here goes; it’s time to dive off the deep end which in a funny way has always my favorite part of the pool. Wish me luck; I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Tip of the Day: Do you have a manuscript ready to revise but one you haven’t felt ready or willing to start? Go get it now. Set a date on your calendar that sounds comfortable for you to begin revising and a date to have it finished. And stay in touch; I'd love to know what you decide to do.

Honoring Your Inner Newbie

Last Saturday I started taking an eight-week watercolor class. After the first few minutes I knew I was out of my depth, but I also promised to not beat myself up just because I can’t paint like John Singer Sargent or even like anyone else in the class. I’m a watercolor newbie, and I’m going to make lots of mistakes along the way. And that’s okay, because I’m also going to have the time of my life making them.

Being a newbie at anything is an opportunity to experience a wide-angled sense of freedom and to know first-hand what it's like to live with absolute faith. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I love teaching writing classes to beginning writers. Anything goes, as long as we’re having fun and believe in ourselves. Yes, there are a few rules I set, like: write every day, use specific detail, seize the first and least censored thought blasting through your mind. But basically I do my best to encourage dreams because that’s what I believe all art is: a dream made manifest. To me one of the ugliest things a practicing writer or artist can do is be a nay-sayer, the one quick to laugh at a first-time writer’s innocent grammar flub, or eager to point out how difficult, impossible, slim the chances are of ever finding an agent, getting published, making money. Not only is this “advice” mean, it’s also totally fraudulent. Every--every, every, every--single published author started out unpublished. To believe otherwise is just plain, well, dumb!

After many years of writing with the conviction that the opposite of beginner’s mind is to be “mindless” and who wants that, there are only two things I am certain of: The first is that I can only write if I actually, you know, do some writing, i.e., there is no magic wand that will write for me while I watch TV or hang around on Twitter. Being a newbie doesn’t mean being a fantasist; you have to put in the hours.

The second thing I know for sure is that each new piece of writing does carry the warning label “here be dragons.” But what those dragons are, how to tame them, and what they want from me is never, and will never, be the same. There is no single, universal way to defeat dragons so you might as well learn to be friends with them. The best way to do that is to simply say, “Hello, I’m a new writer (or artist or quilter or pole vaulter). You must be the new dragon. Want a sandwich?”

I think the day that I “know what I am doing” will be the day I will want to stop writing. I don’t write to fulfill some cosmic contract that demands X number of pieces be written before I leave the planet. I write because I can’t stop myself from being fascinated by words, characters, strange happenings, and evocative phrases. I write because I love reading and storytelling and I keep getting these stories in my head that want to be put down on paper.

It’s the same reason I want to take a watercolor class. I have this dream of me painting when I travel, rather than taking photographs. To accomplish that dream I have to start with my Simply Simmons No. 10 round brush and a little tray of Prang watercolors. That and a whole lot of sandwiches for those dragons. I hear they like cream cheese and cucumber. Very cooling.

Tip of the Day: Approach each manuscript or any creative pursuit as a newbie with a beginner’s mind: fresh, hope-filled, and excited about the learning process. The word "mistake" also holds the words: "I make." Make something new today.