Should you join a writing group?

As a writer, feedback can be a really wonderful thing, but you need to know that the feedback you’re getting is good. Joining a writing group can be a great opportunity to get some good quality feedback – and hopefully have some fun along the way. But is joining a writing group right for you?

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits that can come with being in a good writing group. First of all, as mentioned above, there’s the chance to get feedback. Asking people what they think of your writing can be scary, especially when you’re not used to it, but a group where everyone is there for the same purpose and probably just as worried about what people will say as you are can be an ideal way to get started.

You can get used to having other people read your work, and receive different opinions about what you’ve written. You might use all of what they suggest, you might use some or you might use none of it, but whatever you decide to do, giving your work to someone else to read is a big step.

Another benefit of writing groups is that it also gives you the chance to offer feedback to others. It’s generally much easier to critique a piece of writing when it isn’t your own, and so looking at what other people have written and learning to offer constructive criticism can be a really good skill to learn. Over time, it can help you identify issues with your own writing that you need to address by teaching you how to appraise your work with a critic’s eye.

It can also make you more likely to write in the first place. I think it’s something common to most writers that we sometimes have a tendency to drift along without doing any actual writing, and so having goals each week/fortnight/month to complete for your next group meeting can be a good way to make yourself just sit and get things done. When you know you’re going to be disappointing someone other than just yourself if you don’t write, it’s a pretty good spur to get moving.

Then there’s the whole social side of things – writing can be quite a solitary thing, so the chance to go out and socialise yet still be productive is definitely welcome.

There are a couple of considerations to make when you’re thinking of joining a writing group. First, do you want to join an existing group or start your own? Either option can be good; it depends on what you prefer. Also, how many people do you want in your group? Having a few different people around is great as it means you get different opinions on your work, but bear in mind that when you’re giving feedback on everyone’s work, if your group is too large it might not be a very practical option. Small groups of 4 to 8 are quite common.

It’s also important that you feel you can trust the people in your group to read your work with an unbiased eye and offer you fair feedback – that they won’t just say “it’s great” or “I don’t like it” with no qualifications or explanation.

So, there are plenty of good reasons to join a writing group. Many writers do at some point, and if you think that joining or starting a group could improve your work, it’s definitely something worth thinking about.