Shut up, That Guy!
I went to the writer's group meetin' last night. They meet in a well-known chain bookstore in NoVa... I don't want to be too secret squirrel about it, but one thing writer's groups are supposed to be is safe - a safe place to share ideas and writing and not get blogged about in a recognizable way. So that's why the vagueness.
Anyway, I didn't have really high hopes, but let's say I had medium hopes. The group seems well-organized, has a plan of attack, and there were at least 20 people there, which seemed a good sign. There's a range of ages and the ladies outnumbered the menfolk. After a little bit of chitchat the leader (nana nana nana nana LEADER!) handed out writing prompts on small pieces of paper and we all wrote for 20 minutes or so. My prompt said "Write about a strange tourist attraction." So after writing a bunch of ideas (a two story statue of a foot, a place where you can have a conversation with ten-year old you, the amazing glass-skinned boy, catch an armadillo) I wrote a story about a family on a road trip who stop at a Race The Alligator sign and the dad decides to try the race.
I thought the writing exercise thing was good - it offered the entire emo writing experience on a micro scale. First there was panic, then trying stuff, then despair, then trying again and writing, then elation, then doubt, then nervousness. After the writing time was up, the group leader - let's call him Billybob - asked if everyone like doing it. Most people did. One girl said she didn't like her prompt - write about a homeless person, but avoid using cliches. She said she could only think of cliches; the clean homeless person and the dirty one, so she just wrote Christmas cards instead. One guy asked her to read the Christmas cards but she said they were sealed. Billybob gently encouraged others to read, and about half the writers did. Some of the stories were quite good, some not so good. I read mine and was glad I had, just cuz getting over a fear of sharing is as important as getting over fear of writing, for me.
After the exercise portion, Billybob asked for suggestions for the non-critique meetings in 2009. Here's where I started to think maybe this group won't ultimately be for me. A lot of members expressed interest in genre discussions. One girl said she's always been interested in learning about the differences between scifi and fantasy. I would not attend such a meeting because a) it's an easy answer: scifi = rocket ships, fantasy = unicorns, case closed, and b) if the story's good, I don't really care what genre it is.
Then Billybob asked if we'd be interested in reading articles by writers about their writing process. I almost jumped in to say, yes yes yes! Because I'm interested in that. However before I could, he started apologizing and saying he knew we had a lot to read already, with the stories for crit being posted, and he knew people didn't want more 'homework' before a meeting. I was put off. People don't have time to read? Isn't reading rule one of writing? You're a writer, you read. You're a musician, you listen to music. You're a painter, you look at art. Anyone who doesn't read shouldn't be writing. It's like the scene in A Chorus Line (or maybe it's the All That Jazz), where the one girl messes up the ballet audition, and the director says, "If you haven't taken ballet, DON'T DANCE!"
And then there was That Guy. Everyone likes That Guy, but I have a problem with him, because he likes the sound of his own voice a lot. I quit after one meeting of the last writing group I went to, because not only was That Guy there, he was also the leader, andI wasn't having it. In this group That Guy isn't the leader, which is good, but he's allowed to run free anyway. Sigh.
The focus of the group is writing, and not publishing, which is ok by me. There's a ton of info out there about how to query for publication, and I think it's safe to say that I'm not thinking about publishing, being one week into establishing a writing schedule. However, I do think the ultimate goal of writing is to get published. I want to get better, and one way to know your writing is good is to have someone pay you for it so they can put it out there for an audience to read. So that's fine then - but then Billybob started talking about writing contests. He's going to post a bunch of them and encourage us all to submit. Maybe the group thinks this is a baby step to trying to get published. I'm not really down. Sure, it's a goal to meet - write something and submit it within a certain format by a certain deadline. But if you're going to put in the effort, why not put it towards getting published?
I'm going to go to the crit meeting next week and then decide if I should start lookin' elsewhere. I've read the stories that are up for criticism, and I'm interested to see if other folks see the same issues with the stories that I see, and how they give that criticism.
Anyway, I didn't have really high hopes, but let's say I had medium hopes. The group seems well-organized, has a plan of attack, and there were at least 20 people there, which seemed a good sign. There's a range of ages and the ladies outnumbered the menfolk. After a little bit of chitchat the leader (nana nana nana nana LEADER!) handed out writing prompts on small pieces of paper and we all wrote for 20 minutes or so. My prompt said "Write about a strange tourist attraction." So after writing a bunch of ideas (a two story statue of a foot, a place where you can have a conversation with ten-year old you, the amazing glass-skinned boy, catch an armadillo) I wrote a story about a family on a road trip who stop at a Race The Alligator sign and the dad decides to try the race.
I thought the writing exercise thing was good - it offered the entire emo writing experience on a micro scale. First there was panic, then trying stuff, then despair, then trying again and writing, then elation, then doubt, then nervousness. After the writing time was up, the group leader - let's call him Billybob - asked if everyone like doing it. Most people did. One girl said she didn't like her prompt - write about a homeless person, but avoid using cliches. She said she could only think of cliches; the clean homeless person and the dirty one, so she just wrote Christmas cards instead. One guy asked her to read the Christmas cards but she said they were sealed. Billybob gently encouraged others to read, and about half the writers did. Some of the stories were quite good, some not so good. I read mine and was glad I had, just cuz getting over a fear of sharing is as important as getting over fear of writing, for me.
After the exercise portion, Billybob asked for suggestions for the non-critique meetings in 2009. Here's where I started to think maybe this group won't ultimately be for me. A lot of members expressed interest in genre discussions. One girl said she's always been interested in learning about the differences between scifi and fantasy. I would not attend such a meeting because a) it's an easy answer: scifi = rocket ships, fantasy = unicorns, case closed, and b) if the story's good, I don't really care what genre it is.
Then Billybob asked if we'd be interested in reading articles by writers about their writing process. I almost jumped in to say, yes yes yes! Because I'm interested in that. However before I could, he started apologizing and saying he knew we had a lot to read already, with the stories for crit being posted, and he knew people didn't want more 'homework' before a meeting. I was put off. People don't have time to read? Isn't reading rule one of writing? You're a writer, you read. You're a musician, you listen to music. You're a painter, you look at art. Anyone who doesn't read shouldn't be writing. It's like the scene in A Chorus Line (or maybe it's the All That Jazz), where the one girl messes up the ballet audition, and the director says, "If you haven't taken ballet, DON'T DANCE!"
And then there was That Guy. Everyone likes That Guy, but I have a problem with him, because he likes the sound of his own voice a lot. I quit after one meeting of the last writing group I went to, because not only was That Guy there, he was also the leader, andI wasn't having it. In this group That Guy isn't the leader, which is good, but he's allowed to run free anyway. Sigh.
The focus of the group is writing, and not publishing, which is ok by me. There's a ton of info out there about how to query for publication, and I think it's safe to say that I'm not thinking about publishing, being one week into establishing a writing schedule. However, I do think the ultimate goal of writing is to get published. I want to get better, and one way to know your writing is good is to have someone pay you for it so they can put it out there for an audience to read. So that's fine then - but then Billybob started talking about writing contests. He's going to post a bunch of them and encourage us all to submit. Maybe the group thinks this is a baby step to trying to get published. I'm not really down. Sure, it's a goal to meet - write something and submit it within a certain format by a certain deadline. But if you're going to put in the effort, why not put it towards getting published?
I'm going to go to the crit meeting next week and then decide if I should start lookin' elsewhere. I've read the stories that are up for criticism, and I'm interested to see if other folks see the same issues with the stories that I see, and how they give that criticism.
posted by walkinhomefromthethriftstore at 5:43 AM
8 Comments:
That Guy, you will shut your gob. You will shut your gob, That Guy, that is, if you know what's good for you. Because, if you don't, then I guess you won't realize that opening your mouth will mean my foot in ya'ass...That Guy...
It sounds like a good leader, and sometimes that goes a long way t'wards making it a helpful group. Hope it continues on an upward trend there.
Yeah, I hope so too. I don't know what my problem is with writer's groups, but I'm trying to keep my bitchiness impulses in check and give the whole thing a chance.
Dude, I hear you. I think I have the same reaction because the "bad" people remind me of the possibility that I suck. Of course, it's just as likely that it's simply that they are the sucky ones.
For me, it's the "good" people who remind me that I suck. The "bad" ones I can just pity from on high.
My beefs usually have to do with whether or not people are doing the work, and how they're doing it. There was a lot of talk during the meeting about how to get motivated to write more, and I was kind of like, um, you can't really wait for motivation. That's how I approach gym-going and well, I'm still 30 pounds overweight. And then they were talking about 'plotting', and I don't like that either. I'm afraid it means deciding ahead of time what's going to happen rather than finding out what happens. I could be wrong, and yes, it's two paths to the same place, but eh, you know. Through it all I try to keep a pleasant smile on my face, so I probably look insane to boot. Rock on writing groups!
At the risk of looking like a blog crasher or spammer, I'll post a comment. Some friends and I recently launched a site to facilitate online writing groups, so I've been searching the blogosphere for info on writing groups in general.
I was just curious, have you ever tried an online writing group? Do you think "That Guy" could show up in online groups too?
If you want to check out out site, I'd love to know what you think. You seem to be pretty critical and open about writing groups and we're eager for honest feedback. Our site is www.reviewfuse.com
Hope to hear from you.
Sup Cap'n, thanks for stopping by!
I haven't tried any online groups, and on first think, I think they're probably as good of an idea as in-person groups. I'm sure That Guy is there, but is probably much easier to deal with. You can always not read a That Guy email, but you can't make a That Guy stop talking forever during meetings.
I will def. check out your site (after more coffee.)
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ok, I checked it out. It's a nice-looking site, fun and easy to navigate. I have some doubts about a website's ability to match writers of similar skill, but that's no different from any writing group.
Everything looks great, but d'oh! The free membership only allows 10 content uploads, and then you gotta upgrade to the $49.95/year membership.
Now, I do not think this is a scam. I also do not think I'm going to be paying $50 to use the site. I registered and will give the site a shot, but if you want my money you're going to have to offer me something tangible, like a chess set or some pretty, pretty earrings.
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