At the beginning of the year I joined up with one of my fellow classmates in the novel-in-progress class that I took last summer, deciding that we would meet up every other week to crit and talk about our books. We added two more lovely women in the last few months and now we have a wonderfully well-rounded group of four, all with very different novels in various stages. It’s one of the best things I could have done for my writing. When I come home from one of those meetings I want nothing more than to sit my ass in the chair and write. The motivation is unparalleled.

There is an article in the February Writer’s Digest (I only remember this because its still in the bathroom magazine rack) about starting your own writer’s group. The author advocates keeping the group at 6-7 members but I think that four is really a perfect number. MAYBE five but I think that if you want to keep your meetings around 2-3 hours of time that more people make it difficult. We have started to break it up so that we only cover 2 people’s novels at each session with exceptions for crucial query letters and synopsis rewrites.

The article also makes the point about dedicated participants. One of the women who recently joined up with our little group is part of another writer’s group which sort of meets here and there but there is no structure, no definite meeting dates, etc. One of the draws for her was that in our group we make a point of meeting every two weeks. It may not always be on say, a Monday, but it will still be within that two week mark. We always make a point of reading the material on that week’s docket.  We share our latest news, our frustrations, our breakthroughs but it all comes back to the core material of the words on the page and if they are working or not working. That consistency and dedication are what make everything work.

Two of our writers are on the prowl for an agent, with one of them very close to representation (she had several agents vying for exclusive reading rights of the manuscript when we last spoke). It’s exciting to be part of that process, to be watching and helping with letters and advice. We’re all so excited for each other and to me, that’s the best part.