Writing Group-Like a Book Club but for Premature Books

Last summer I was at a stalemate with my writing. I was blocked. I hated every word I had ever put down. Just looking at a Word document made me want to throw up or throw my computer across the room.

I didn't want to give up on writing. Yeah, I might suck, but it was something I loved doing. My family and friends were encouraging, but they didn't quite know how to help me. I knew I had to do something so I worked on finding a local writing group to join.

I had attempted to make a writing/book club a few years ago with a couple of friends who wrote poetry and enjoyed reading. It worked for a few meetings but we kind of fell apart when we couldn't figure out a regular day to meet (plus, holidays in retail happened).

Well, I went to the local Facebook exchange group and was trying to come up with The perfect way of saying:

"WRITER DESPERATELY SEEKING WRITER FRIENDS TO HELP GET HER OUT OF THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR AND MAYBE HAVE A BEVERAGE WITH WHILE TALKING ABOUT WRITING AND BOOKS AND STUFF"

Without sounding too pathetic.

I might not have the hang of this yet.

Then I stumbled on a post for a writer's group advertising for people to join.

Like manna from heaven.

I immediately joined the Facebook group and messaged that I had been looking for such a group. They welcomed me with open arms.

It was a couple of months before I could make it to a meeting (all while avoiding my writing like it had a plague-syphilis combo that hasn't been cool since the Dark Ages) but once I was finally able to attend, the heavens opened up and celestial trumpets were playing Aretha Franklin on surround sound... that might be a little dramatic, but it was pretty awesome.

I got to spend 2+ hours with local writers of varying experience levels. Some people in the group were pleasure writers who did not necessarily have plans to seek publication, but simply wrote for the love of it, some were actively trying to get published, and some were already published. A few people wrote real world/crime fiction, some wrote historical fiction, some were working on memoirs or nonfiction, and a couple wrote in many different genres.

But they all were like me, looking for people who knew the highs and lows of being a writer and who could offer support and advice.

We spent the first half hour or so "networking," which meant we were chatting, getting to know each other, and gossiping. Then, we went around the table, told a little about ourselves to the group, and read something that we had written, if we were so inclined.

I had absolutely no idea what to share. I was still in the mindset that everything that I wrote sucked and that I was a failure as a writer but, as panic set in, I dug though my computer just in case they decided the new guy needed to read something.

They did.

I settled on reading something from my first novella. It was the first thing I self-published and I had had good feedback on it. I figured I wouldn't embarrass myself too badly by reading from it. The group actually enjoyed it. They laughed where they were supposed to and a few people even asked me questions about the series.

I learned how much I didn't know about the writing and publishing industry and how much even my compatriots didn't know, but everybody was more than happy to share what knowledge they had.

We were a group of non-professional writers working together to make everybody better.

The encouragement was overwhelming. Nothing else could have been as effective breaking down my block and self-doubt as that meeting.

I walked out of that first meeting like I was floating on air.