Productivity and Writing Groups
One of the most difficult things about writing is how solitary an activity it is. Most writers spend a majority of their working time alone. Even if they are in a room full of people. Writers live in their own heads — they have to, because that’s where the stories live too.
Solitude also means that the only one holding the writer accountable for their work is the writer. This can make finishing projects — or even simply hitting daily word counts — very difficult.
One solution is the ever-popular writing/critique group.
I’ve been a part of a number of writing groups through my life. Some more formal than others, some more successful than others. But every successful one had two things in common: productivity and support.
Productivity
The first serious writing group I was participated in was in graduate school. A group of us who were writing dissertations got together once a week to discuss chapters. There were five or six of us, most of the time. All of us were in the Humanities. Of course everyone didn’t submit every week, and often we didn’t submit full chapters. But we did submit.
Knowing that a group of people were expecting me to produce some writing really helped me finish things. All of us made pretty good progress on our dissertations in this group.
A good critique group will have you submitting often enough to keep you moving forward on your project, but not so often that it is more anxiety inducing that motivational.
Support
While I would always encourage writers to surround themselves with people who support their writing, the truth is that the best support often comes from other writers. And this the second thing I get out of my current critique group.
This group I joined recently (less than a year ago). It is a group of women varying in age from 24 to 65. We range from professionally published to pretty new to the field. We all tend to write speculative fiction, though that isn’t a requirement from the group. We meet twice a month or every other week at a different person’s house. We have writing retreats — weekends where we hang out and write, and maybe critique things, but mostly write.
While discussions, often mocking, of “safe spaces” abound, I can say that this group is definitely a safe space. I do not worry that I will get derision or mocking for my work, and I would never give a critique of that nature to any of them. We not only respond to the writing, but we talk about the writer’s goals for the piece, and we often brainstorm together with the writer. I have gotten incredibly useful, meaningful feedback.
Interestingly, we are not quite “friends.” There is only one person in the group that I hang out with on a regular basis and am close to. This, I think, is important. Here, we are colleagues, and we have the same goals and ideas. But we are not so close that we cannot see the problems with each other’s works. We begin each group with a kind of “how are things going…” talk — it looks like small talk, but it really is a chance for us to share our experiences with writing. Since we’re all writers, we’re often capable of empathetic responses — not just sympathetic ones. We are thrilled for each other’s successes, and we encourage and comfort when things don’t go well.
To make clear, do not mistake support for praise. Though I have been touched by the praise I’ve gotten, and I praise the other writers, that is not what we gather to do. Indeed because I know that these women 1. know what they are talking about and 2. do not give false praise or empty flattery, their praise is doubly meaningful.
When Critique Groups Go Wrong
I have had some critique groups that had faded or fizzled out because schedules changed, folks moved, people lost interest, and those things happen. Keeping a critique group going for years is quite a feat, and I’m always impressed when I meet folks in groups like that. In all long-term groups, there is always good chemistry among the members of the group.
So, some things that can cause critique groups to go wrong:
- Sometimes people don’t connect. They rub each other the wrong way. They don’t have chemistry. Or they have very very bad, explosive chemistry. Often the only solution is for someone to leave the group.
2. Sometimes people aren’t ready to hear critiques. Being able to hear and accept critique is hard. But if a person in the group regularly gets upset and, especially, hostile to every critique, that can disrupt the group. Support comes out of honesty, and if a person can’t accept honest critique, then they jeopardize true support.
3. The opposite problem: sometimes people are not able to give critiques at all, but instead tear down the writer in inappropriate ways. This can be related to the above: someone who struggles to take critique might lash out in the form of attacks rather that legitimate criticism. Sometimes a member is a know-it-all who lectures rather than participates.
4. There isn’t equal ownership in the group. There has to be a leader — a person who will keep track of dates and times, be the email point of contact, etc. But if everyone doesn’t own the group — if everyone doesn’t take responsibility for being a good group member, it can lead to resentment, and that can destroy a group.
5. Expectations aren’t clear. Length of submissions, length of critiques, language used, trigger warnings, type and frequency of contact, etc. All of these can cause problems if people’s expectations aren’t clearly laid out. In this way, it helps to, from time to time, discuss what everyone is looking to get from the group, and capable of giving to the group.
I have had good, bad, and neutral experiences with writing groups. I love my current one and hope that we are able to work together for a long time. These groups helped me feel less isolated as a writer and get support from other writers, too. Both of these have been valuable to my success and my growth as a writer.
The simple fact of having a group who expects writing from me on a regular basis, and supports that writing, helps me prioritize my writing and be more productive.
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