Writing Group

A few years ago I became the third member of a writing group (since disbanded) that had been set up in my home city, Wellington. The other core members were a teacher and a retired academic. The former, I suspect, was writing to exorcise ghosts from his childhood, and the latter, to some degree, out of her nostalgia for gentler times.

Both members had the ability to improve my written English but did not seem very willing to accept what I could pass on from my learnings about the art of writing popular fiction.

The group had a fourth member for a short time. He had a great idea for a novel, set in part in Israel, but did not have the commitment to write it at that time. He pointed out a research flaw in something I’d written which gave me a salutary lesson to more thoroughly check my facts are up to date.

At one meeting the group was joined, as a potential member, by a woman student from a Whitireia Writing Course. She did not come back, presumably concluding that the group had nothing to offer her. She did give me some useful advice on an excerpt from my work at the time but was not too impressed by my critique of an excerpt from hers.

I was in the process of writing a thriller called “Island of Regrets” which I subsequently put on the back-burner.

The group rescued me from the loneliness of writing. At last I had someone to talk to with a common interest; persons struggling with the same learning path that I had embarked on. I enjoyed their companionship in our weekly sessions and appreciated having would-be writers with whom I could test my novice work. I tried to help them in return.

I have dedicated “Island of Regrets” to the members of that writing group. I hope the book will be published before Christmas. It will be my 5th novel.