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.

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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.