Get Thee To A Writer's Group!

by Janelle Meraz Hooper

  Author of:

One of the best things that can happen to a serious writer is to find an active, supportive writing group whose members have goals similar to yours. At their best, these writers will listen to your query letters, synopsis, and chapter problems and be able to offer constructive advice. Chances are, it'll be much more satisfying than asking the plumber who thought he was just there to fix the leaky faucet. Or, the glazed look you get at the dinner table at home when you ask for your family's help.

Don't think your family's reluctance to critique your writing as being abandoned in your time of need by the people you've loved, supported, and fed all their lives. After all, there was that time they actually had some ideas and you burst into tears over your meatloaf. No one in your family wants to go there again. Do you?

Sometimes the people around your dinner table are silent because they have no advanced writing skills and they hate to be wrong. Don't we all? So, most likely, they'll hem and haw until they get their dessert, then they'll leave you little sticky-notes on your computer behind your back. More about those notes later.

Better to take your questions to some people who will be more objective. Your family will be happier (relieved is more like it) and you'll be happier and further along in actually fixing the problem, whatever it is.

Your fellow writers will also be a valuable resource when you have to make other decisions like: which writing conference is worth the time and money and which isn't. Who's buying the kind of stuff you're writing? What's new on the Internet?

A serious organization should have set times to meet in a dry place with tables and chairs. It should be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. A circle of writers that hopes to be productive should have a moderator who's there on a regular basis and appoints someone to sit in her place when she's absent.

Luckily, the group I'm in has a published writer who's also an editor at the head of our table. She doesn't just maintain order and make sure that all members get a chance to read, she can offer legitimate help on any writing project, big or small. Maybe her best quality is she's so tactful. Every meeting, we tax her critiquing skills more than once or twice. I'm sure one of us could read aloud from one of Nixon's old speeches, and she'd think of something encouraging and constructive to say.

Sometimes the perfect collection of writers to encourage your creative flow isn't easy to find. If you don't feel comfortable with the first writers you visit, try, try again, until you find your "writing home." For instance, I knew that a group I visited wasn't a good fit when I was the only writer at the table who didn't have on a marijuana tee-shirt. The second bunch was okay but too far away to get me off my couch on stormy winter nights. My next "home" was perfect, and I've been there for several years now.

So, get out there and find some other writers you're simpatico with. Either that, or get used to coming home to find that your family has left notes stuck all over your computer with messages like these:

• Mom! I had a few minutes before baseball practice, so I made a few improvements on chapter seven for you. Hope you like the scene I added with the giant spider. -Ritchie
• Dear, your editor called and said you needed an "expendable character," so I murdered your protagonist in chapter three. Hope that was all right.-Mike
• Sis! I went through your new Thesaurus and underlined all the literary-sounding words in red. If you're more literary, maybe you can be on Oprah. -Molly
• Mom! I thought your Times Roman was looking a little flat, so I changed everything to Ravie. It's way cool, and added another fifty pages to your book. So I solved your page-count problem, too! -Kandy

Well, you did ask sometime over meatloaf for their help, remember?

Believe me, you'll be much happier if you find a good writing group and make a commitment to it. If you want to become a better writer, you have to set aside the time to make it happen.

Members also have an obligation to be there to help their fellow writers, cheer when the news is good, and lend encouragement when needed. I should also add: be nice. Some of your fellow writers will be there for the camaraderie, so spare them the twisting knife in the ribs after they read.

. . . Wait a minute. I just found another sticky-note. This one says: "Hey, lady! What's with all that back story in chapter two? Ya' gotta get that stuff outta there, else you'll slow down the pace." Signed: Joe the plumber.

It was bound to happen. A plumber who writes. Turns out, he was right. Maybe I don't need a writing group after all. Maybe what I need is another leaky faucet.

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Copyright © 2001-2007 Janelle Meraz Hooper
All Rights Reserved

Author bio:
Janelle Meraz Hooper is a writer from Oklahoma with a Hispanic background. Her novel, A Three-Turtle Summer, was published in September 2002, and is the first of a trilogy. The second in the trilogy, As Brown As I want, The Indianhead Diaries, will be out in October, 2003.
In June 2003, four of her short stories and a poem were published in a Northwest anthology, Dream Makers (compiled by Val Dumond, published by Muddy Puddle Press). She has been a contributing writer for The Northwest Guardian Newspaper, Ft. Lewis, Washington, and other newspapers. In 2002, she was awarded The Bold Media Book Award for A Three-Turtle Summer.

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