Group Writing

Do writing groups really help?  I believe they can.  Indeed, they must.  At work someone has started up a creative writing group.  I went to a meeting.  I felt old.

Like dirty old man old.  I mean, shouldn’t somebody my age already know about publishing?  Shouldn’t I put up or shut up?  What was a guy old enough to be the father of everyone in the room to say?

I’ve been part of writers’ groups before.  I joined the Liberty State Writers Group once upon a time.  I felt lost.  There were so many of them, and they all knew each other.  I’m shy, like a writer, and soon felt lost.  I stopped going before my dues ran out.

I still remember one girl there.  I never knew her name.  She shyly smiled at me and said “hi” a time or two.  I bet she wrote the kinds of thing I do.  I’ll never know.

More recently a joined a mostly male writerly group.  Males tend to be more aggressive, self-interested.  I attended a couple of times.  They all knew each other.  Only one person said “hi” and he wasn’t nearly as cute as she was.

So I’m a bit skeptical of this work group.  Do I want those in the office to know who I really am?  Does my fiction say more about me than my résumé?  Can I trust them with such information?

It helps, I’m sure to have those who won’t cause you harm in your circle of writer friends.  These are all younger people than me who haven’t had time to explore all the darkened corners in their minds that I have.  Sometimes what I find there frightens even me.

Groups have connections, however.  They can lead to places that just one lonely author may never find. 

They want to critique.  I wilt under criticism at the best of times.  I’m learning to cope.  Still, it’s easier when strangers do it.  Random acts of insult are somehow easier to bear.

The writers’ group has found me at work.  Dare I attend another meeting?