What I want from a writing group

[thanate]

All the writing groups people talk about are critique-focused, which is all very well, but I don't actually like in-person critique that much, and I'm mostly not writing at the moment anyway, and most of my options are probably online which means definitely working with e-format documents, which I'm also not wild about. So I sat down the other day and made a wishlist of what *I* actually want, and it sounds a lot more like an informal con panel than a critique group.

Practicalities:

*Once a week or so, to begin not before 8:30 PM EST and probably ending by 10:30 because her Megatheriocity isn't going to sleep in to suit my follies.

*Either hyper-local, or online. (Ok, realistically, that means online.) Would be willing to look into giving in on the G+ battle (ugh, google's annoying proprietary login crap) if their chat feature is the cross-platform option on what's going. Something chat-based seems more useful to me, but I gather there are a lot of talk/text hybrid things out there, which might also be worthy?

*Not too big, maybe 5 to 7 people maximum with space for an occasional drop-in or variance as people's schedules allow. Probably 4 would be a comfortable minimum. People with similar levels of writing/analytical abilities (whatever that means) will probably work best together.

Content:

*Mostly, I want to discuss the craft of writing; I finally *have* the sort of writing brain that's occasionally capable of analyzing metatextual elements instead of staring blankly at people who mention them, and I'm presently stuck in a sea of the same stack of picture books seven or eight times a day which has thus far been antithetical to my writing process. So, build-you-own writing salon/book group for writers, something like that.

*I'd be up for the occasional writing exercises (a la Steering the Craft) if other people want to try that, but that's not really my thing either.

*I'm thinking a structure of deciding on a topic the meeting beforehand so there's time to think about it/track down loose ends. Topics could range from large (let's talk about characterization!), to small, to process-based (how do *you* revise?), & maybe even a round exchanging favorite books of writing advice.

*Spoilers ok, to draw examples from things not everyone has read/seen.

*Questions and/or examples from your own work also fair game. (Either "I did this, which worked/didn't..." or "I'm working on X, and want to discus [problem/aspect of it]")

Ground Rules include:

*Opinions are just that, and everybody gets one; this isn't the place for big emotional arguments. (Within basic standards of not-being-a-horrible-person-whatever-that-means, of course; if your opinion involves planning on murdering people then that's probably an issue.)

*That counts double if you're bringing up your own work.

--------

Does this sound interesting to anybody? Or like a can of worms I ought to be leaving at the fishbait store? Thoughts welcomed.

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

That sounds quite awesome! Having people to discuss writing with would be heaven.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

That definitely sounds interesting and I would totally participate!

...I have to say I still prefer text chat, even with the whizzy new interfaces of skype/g+ to do video and voice. Of course then you have to find a text chat or IM thing that everyone has accounts on, I suppose. (Or create a chatroom somewhere.) Or do it on twitter with a hashtag?

As a side note someone I follow on DW used to do these weekly salon type things--she'd make a post with the topic and then people could comment. The comment thread tended to stretch over a couple of days and the conversations usually didn't get too nested, but possibly that'd be an option to look at here.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Possibly part of the appeal for me is the idea of something vaguely resembling social interaction with adults-- I think twitter would work very badly, both with the character limit, and with the tendency for conversations to wander off collecting huge chains of people to reply to as they go.

I would totally read things if someone else hosted an lj/dw conversation, but at the moment if it's not time-boxed I'm going to be very sporadic at being able to do anything with it. The joys of needy toddlers & work-stressed spouses, plus that I multi-task less effectively the more stressed I get.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

This makes sense! Sorry for spouting options at you when you have clearly thought about this from all the angles. :) Definitely let me know whatever medium you end up settling on and I will show up.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Suggestions are fine-- I have unpredictable blind spots, so there's no telling when something obvious is the thing I haven't thought of yet. :)

I will definitely involve you in planning process should we get as far as having one.