Sharing Is Daring!

You labor over word choice, descriptions, character development, and plot for hours and hours, and find that you're still unsure of the phrasing in a particular paragraph or if your plot twist works. This is the point in the process when it's helpful to pull your pages out of the dark and ask for feedback, and I'm not just talking about correct grammar usage. Sharing your work with other writers, people who enjoy reading, or simply friends and acquaintances who are willing to listen, can be a crucial step in the writing process. To borrow Tupelo's awesome description, these people help us see the spinach in the teeth of our writing.

I would be lost without readers and friends who are willing to hash out my work with me. Over the summer, I have been part of a writers group that meets every other week for two hours. We swap book titles that have been inspiring or helpful and share three poems each for feedback. Simply having a set meeting helped me get through my month of poetry. When I see our meeting dates on the calendar, it provides a reminder that I need to stop browsing Facebook or checking off my to-do list, and sit down to write or revise.

I'm also a member of another kind of writing group each semester. One of the reason I wanted to go back to school was to be part of an established, regulated group of writers who would help inform my work. But oh man, do I get nervous when it's my turn to share! In fact, I often have to coach myself before class to get through reading my poems aloud without a noticeably shaky voice. This group is less intimate and often quite opinionated, and I'm still offering up the poems I've spent a great deal of time on for reconstructive surgery.

Both groups are important for different reasons. In my chosen group, I feel a lot of support. There are just three of us, which allows the time and space to ask probing questions that help us see areas for improvement in our writing. It's also a time to provide encouragement on aspects that are working well. Most of all, there seems to be an understood patience with each other's work as we attempt to grow. We don't always agree, but those differences in opinion often lead to better discussions, and time together helps us develop deeper understandings of one another's style, voice, and subject.

My assigned writers group, on the other hand, is larger, representing around 12 writers. It meets once a week and the time to share and receive feedback is often short, which makes me question the feedback I receive and offer. There is more distance in this group and at times I get caught up thinking it's a space for correct answers and approval. Sometimes, it becomes obvious that I'm not making sense with my writing or that I've relied on cliché or sugar-coated sentiment. Even though it can be challenging to hear and process, I've realized this distance is essential. It helps me see a poem, story, or article through a lens that is closer to a reader picking it up somewhere far away, without any connection to me or my writing style. 

Sometimes feedback can feel discouraging and overwhelming because not everyone approaches the content or format with the same opinion and sometimes we can hear clashing voices. At other moments, sharing work with others can provide confirmation for the main character's development and a metaphor we were uncertain about.

Since it seems like a necessary challenge to share our work with others, I'm always trying to collect strategies that lead to fruitful dialogue about writing. It's one thing to maneuver through this with my peers, but it's quite another challenge to lead a group of students in this kind of discussion. Here at OLL, our YWP curriculum utilizes great strategies to create a supportive environment to help students edit when the time is right and this often requires sharing stories with classmates. In a workshop I was in last spring, the professor had a three-round system in place. In the first round, we praised the writer's work. In the second round, we posed questions about the work to other classmates and the writer. And in the third round, the writer responded with some questions of their own. This format made the writer really think through their work and answer questions that surrounded it.

Are you in a writers group, either assigned or chosen, or are you against offering your work to be hacked away at by others? How does it benefit or bend your writing? Are there any strategies you use to create a positive conversation for writing in group settings?

– Jenelle

Photo by Flickr user Medmoiselle T