I have an addictive personality. It's something I realised quite early on, and as a result I chose to side-step the experimental phase some people go through in their teens and twenties, fearing that I wouldn't be able to regulate myself.
So it's been something of a shock to realise that I've inadvertently become addicted to something despite my best efforts... I've become addicted to writing groups.
It all started seven years ago, when an acquaintance offered to arrange a coffee between me and an agent friend of his. At that point, I had never shared my writing efforts with anyone, pressing them close to my chest, promising myself that by the time I showed them to someone else, they would be perfect. The agent read my work, and said, 'You can write, but for god's sake, join a feedback group. You'll improve so much faster.'
I took her words to heart, and applied to Faber Academy's Writing a Novel course. My first 'PP' (six years on and none of us can now remember what this stands for - personal project? peer presentation?) was terrifying. Fifteen near-strangers had read the opening 5000 words of my book, and were now discussing it around a table. Did I get criticism? Absolutely. Did I also get a confidence boost? Also absolutely. Where I learnt most of my craft, though, was in giving feedback, not receiving it. It's much easier to spot problems - and solutions - to someone else's book baby than it is your own, but once you've spotted them in someone else's work, it's easier to find and fix the same issues in your own. After the Faber course finished, many of us continued to meet on a monthly basis to read and discuss each other's writing. We took a few years off, but have recently started again on Zoom. My work in progress has been given a new direction and new energy as a result of my peers' constructive criticism.
As for my addiction? Well, my Faber peers aren't the only group I now belong to. There's also a 6am writers' Zoom, running every weekday for my fellow early birds. We gather in our pyjamas, tea in hand and bleary-eyed, chat for five minutes, write for fifty and then chat for another five. I've written and edited many thousands of words as a result, all before the sun is up. There's a group for screenwriters and actors, meeting monthly to read scripts out loud. And my fourth writing group is in person: a little gathering of Cambridge-based authors who meet up for coffee, gossip and the occasional writing sprint.
Each one is priceless in different ways. Each one provides companionship that can so often be lacking from the writing process, and a group of excellent minds to bounce ideas off. As addictions go, it could be worse.
Now, whenever aspiring writers ask me for advice, I parrot the words of that agent, without which I absolutely wouldn't be a published author today: 'Get thee to a writing group'.
3 comments:
"Where I learnt most of my craft, though, was in giving feedback, not receiving it. It's much easier to spot problems - and solutions - to someone else's book baby than it is your own, but once you've spotted them in someone else's work, it's easier to find and fix the same issues in your own."
There is so much truth in that!
I had really enjoyed the time I spent working alongside am online writing group and the sense of purpose and achievement I got from it. Sadly, life threw me/us a couple of wobblies but I an hoping one day soon to get back to that space.
My head rings with "mea culpa" whener I'm reading through someone else's mss, too.
Thanks for the post.
I've had the opposite reaction: I once passed an MS of mine to a writer friend for an opinion and she whaled on it with such ferocity that any positive feedback I might have gleaned simply vanished in the vitriol. I have a hard time showing my work to anyone these days. How did you get past your fear of passing your work over to strangers?
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