Not all writing groups are created equal. In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Lisa Cooper Ellison offers tips for identifying the weak ones and what you should do about it.
“In my experience, 99.9% of writing group members are generous souls who’ll spend hours poring over your manuscripts,” Ellison writes. “But if writing groups are so helpful and so beloved, why do some writers never graduate from project-in-progress to project done?”
This could mean you simply need to put in the work. Most successes don’t happen overnight. However, it might mean that your group isn’t a good match for what you need right now.
“When working through a first draft, your goal might be to race to the end so you can get a sense of the story you’re trying to tell,” Ellison says. “But workshopping scenes along the way will thwart your forward motion, no matter how skilled or kind your reviewers. Instead of drafting new chapters, you’ll feel compelled to revise and then resubmit the same material to your group, hoping they’ll confirm you’re on the right track.”
And that’s a problem. Now you’re no closer to finishing your draft and you might be wasting time revising something that will cut from your final manuscript later.
Other groups focus on generating ideas by assigning prompts and sharing freshly written work during the session. That’s fun if you need it, but if you already have a manuscript in process or need heavy duty feedback, this isn’t the group for you. You might need an accountability group instead, or a professional editor.
