Ep. 165: How Do You Start Your Own Writing Group? Bonus mini-episode!

Say you want out of a certain writer’s organization (cough cough). How would you go about starting one? What do you need to consider? This week’s mini-episode tells you how to start! (No Friday episode this week, as I’m on retreat.)

Transcript

Rachael Herron: Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron, and this is a bonus episode brought to you directly by my $5 Patreons. If you’d like me to be your mini coach for less than a large mocha Frappuccino, you can join too at www.patreon.com/rachael

Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 165 of “How do you Write?” This is a bonus mini episode. I’m Rachael Herron, and I am so glad you’re here today. As I record its January 21st of 2020 I almost said 2002, that’s where I am. And I am just about, I mean, I am minutes away from getting on the road to go to spirit rock. To be one of those people on a silent meditation retreat.

[00:00:43] I understand that this is, annoying. I find myself annoyed by myself. But it’s such a wonderful experience. I went last year and being silent for days on end, not talking to anyone, not communicating with anyone, just sitting next to them and meditating and walking and being in the body is exactly what I need. I was just thinking to myself that when I quit smoking when I was 29 yonks ago, my mother told me that she was pretty cheap, and mind you, she was, she was a thrifty person. She told me that for every year I stayed quit. She would buy me a crab dinner and crab has always been my one true love. So, that was a big deal. And, she’s no longer around. I’m comfortably quit from cigarettes now, but I think that this is kind of my crab dinner. But Buddhist, I’m not a Buddhist. I’m an, I’m British. But this is, this is my second hand, I’m doing it. I’m almost at my second year of sobriety, and I’d always wanted to do a silent retreat before and I couldn’t because one of the precepts you take when you get there is you won’t use mind altering substances, which includes alcohol, which includes weed, which includes all the things that I used as a crutch, not to feel my feelings for a very long time. So, I’m excited to go. I think I’ll go next year, if I’m still sober. I could still celebrate that. God willing, whatever you think God is, I don’t care. I don’t know what it is. Oh, and also this will be your only podcast for this week. I will not be doing the normal Friday podcast, so enjoy this right now while you got it. I’ll be back to regular schedule again next week. 

[00:02:28] So, very quick episode because I literally have to get on the road. But Amy, Hello Amy! Amy Tesekata asks, “Thinking of starting/helping to start a new local writing group organization. Any tips on how to start and where to start?” 

[00:02:45] Wow, Amy! You could not be doing this at a better time, could you? Just yesterday, Las Vegas RWA voted to disaffiliate. There are a lot of romance writers of America groups going down with the ship. Well, no, that’d be opposite. There are a lot that are sticking with that ship and are probably going to go down, in my opinion. And then there are those who are jumping out. We don’t know what we’re doing in our chapter yet. I know that I’ll probably be jumping out, but I don’t have to do that today. So it is a great time to start a writing group. So some tips on how to start: Just like in writing, when you’re pitching a book, figure out your demographic. Who do you want these writers to be? Do you want them to be writers of a certain genre? Do you want them to be of a certain gender? Do you want them to be of a certain age? Do you want it open to absolutely everyone? Do you have rules of conduct? Very important in this day and age. What are your rules around inclusion? I know you, Amy, so who you will be inclusive, all of that. You also kind of want to think about how, how codified you want it to be. Do you want this to be an actual non not for profit organization, which will require a president and a board? It sounds like perhaps, I’m guessing that you want to do a more basic one more informal one, which is probably what I would encourage.  And I, the main thing about starting that writing group is how you find your members. It is absolutely possible to find members for a writing group on Craigslist. However, you’re gonna get uncle How. And uncle How is a very nice man, and uncle How has a lot of experience, but not much in writing and not much in critiquing if that’s what you’re looking for. How are you going to handle the uncle How’s of the world? or aunt Sal’s? Aunt Sal could also show up. You are connected. I know already you are active and you have community. So I would start there in looking to recruit members, it is worthwhile in the very beginning, thinking about what the expectations of the members are. Is this a critique group? Is this an encouragement group? You know me, I always encourage writing groups to be of assistance in helping people get their words done and giving encouragement about those words. If you can combine those two things, that’s fantastic. The problem arises is when amateurs critique amateurs. And amateur is not a bad word here. I’m, I’m meaning it in the actual way that it is used. A beginner. Do you really want an amateur copy editor? Which is what a lot of critique turns out to be. Wow. Those, he’s making a lot of noise. Sorry. Probably not what you want. If within this group, you can find really good beta readers or critique partners that you trust fabulous. And you’ll want to know, of course, when you’ll meet, how you’ll meet. Will you do this online? If everyone can’t get together, one month? Are you going to meet every month, every two months, every other week? All of those things should be thought of. But remember, when it really comes down to it, you are the boss. You are creating this. You get to make the rules. You get to stick to the rules. You get to bend or break or change the rules when you want to. It is trial and error, where actually, there’s a few of us talking about this within our own local chapter. Could we do this? And I’m speaking specifically of RWA. Could we start something new? How would that be? What would that look like? And to me, it feels like an awful, gosh darn a lot of work. So I tend to put together informal writing groups myself. You know, we will meet at this person’s house and write for three hours, or we’ll meet at Panera and write for two hours. That feels really good to me. So, I’m sure that you’ve thought about all of these things and I would love to hear more about what kind of group you are thinking about starting. Come over on I think you can get there by https://rachaelherron.com/podcast now, I think that directs to the right URL. The URL has been wonky lately and not really working. So, that one should be a redirect. If you want to come, tell me about that. And I wish you the best of luck. And like Jay and I talked about last week on the writer’s well, community is everything. So I love that you are reaching out and that you’re looking for it. 

[00:07:32] Okay. My friends, I told you it would be a short one. That is all I’ve got right now. I wish you the most happy writing. Please wish me luck as I go into this place where we are not supposed to read or write. And I have to tell you that, I did not attend this, this kind of retreat for many years because I knew I would break the rule of not sneaking a substance in, but friends, last year I got permission from somebody from one of the teachers to jot down notes that I was realizing and learning because it was driving me crazy to try to hold everything in my head, and I was really stressing myself out. I was getting these revelations and finding, you know, learning. It’s picking up ideas that had never occurred to me and I wanted to catch them. So the teacher allowed me to do that. I’m also sneaking in a book on meditation just because I’m a rebel. I’m not going to read like a murder mystery or a thriller or something. But I am bringing a book on meditation so I can read at night because. Gosh, it’s hard to go to sleep without reading for me. Maybe I won’t break any rules, but I probably will. And I’m also gonna get a McDonald’s cheeseburger on the way there before I get fed vegetarian – really delicious vegetarian food for five days.

[00:08:41] So I hope that you’re getting your writing done. I hope that you’re breaking some rules, some small ones, even some big ones. I hope that you’re pushing back and setting boundaries and taking care of yourself, and most of all, doing what is important to you, the creation. Okay? We’ll talk soon. Bye friends.

[00:09:02] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/

Now, go to your desk and create your own process and get to writing my friends.