The old Welsh tradition of Halloween, Nos Calan Gaeaf, marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the new season of winter, so it seems appropriate (to me at least) to be beginning new things at this time of year.
I'm heavily involved in the Abergavenny Writers' Festival and ever since the last one, people have been asking me if there's a local writers' group they can join. Then a local restaurant advertised, saying they wanted to use their upstairs space for community groups and were particularly interested in author events.
I've been in writers' groups before, but I've never run one so I was hesitant because of the commitment and the potential for a lot of extra work. But what could be the worst that would happen? I find it's too much to manage and I stop doing it and maybe a few people are disappointed.
After a few chats with the events co-ordinator at the restaurant, I set a date and created the all-important Facebook group.
Very soon, I received an email from someone who used to run a drop-in session for writers in the town. No commitment, turn up as and when you like for some writing and chat on a writing-related topic. It sounded ideal.
We've had two meetings so far, with around 15 people at each, and the Facebook group is currently at 36 people. We have a good mix of people from beginners to published authors writing across a whole range of genres. After the first meeting, where we set some ground rules, we decided to meet fortnightly, with most people aiming to come once a month. The first hour is for writing and I was assuming we'd just get on with whatever we were working on, but it turned out people wanted prompts so I've been looking up exercises and recycling some of the Folly Farm workshops.
From my experience so far, some tips:
Make sure the venue knows you're coming. Both weeks so far, the events person forgot to tell anyone we'd booked the space and so there was a bit of a scramble to get tables together. I talked the manager yesterday and we have our space confirmed from now on (I hope!)
Arrive early. In case there are any problems with the venue (see above), and in case anyone turns up early. It's nice to order and drink and settle in before the troops arrive in any case.
Make a plan and set expectations up front. That way, people can plan their evening, and it minimises the potential for one person to take over the whole group - something I'd been warned about.
Be flexible. We have a few people who sit with headphones on and just write. Others who want to chat. I suspect we'll end up with one end of the table being for silent writers and the other for people who wants prompts, exercises and discussion.
Keep your expectations low. Not as in 'this will be terrible', but going in without any assumptions.
Be clear what you, personally, want. I decided before the first meeting that I wanted to use the time to try out new ideas and play, writing by hand. Maybe something I write will find its way into a book, but I'm there to have fun.
If anyone has run a group, how did it go? And if anyone has any tips for writing prompts and discussion topics, please do let me know.
Nos Calan Gaeaf hapus! / Happy Halloween.
1 comment:
Lovely post Claire. I'm thinking that some of those pictures around the room would make good writing prompts!
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