Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I was thinking about writing communities and how I feel like I'm missing one at this point. I don't like this feeling. Other than that twice a month zoom meet up I feel like I have no community (and even there I feel like an interloper but if not for me, there would be almost no one there) My friend and I tried to restart the local group on Nov. It was a miserable failure (other than us enjoying each other's company so it wasn't a complete waste of time)

So I was curious, do you feel like you have a good writing community? I'm not talking about the writing every day sort of thing. I shared plenty of them. I think the closest I come to on DW is ushobwri and getyourwordsout. Both are good communities.

And there is every chance the emptiness is in ME and nothing I put into it will fill that hole. And I'm not even sure I have words to articulate what I'd like to see in a group (and it could be that I'm looking for a street team of alpha/beta readers but I'm not even sure that's it either)

So do you have a good one? Is it open? I'm curious.



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Comments

[lucy_roman]

No, I don't feel I have a writing community. There was a writing group set up close to where I live and I was really excited about it because not being able to drive really limits me from getting involved with things. (There are other reasons too) I went to a few meetings and it was okay but then it just completely collapsed. I am also involved with a group of people who are supposed to be putting together a series of anthologies, but so far only the first one has been published and that was five years ago maybe. I think it's hard to hold these sorts of things together.

[cornerofmadness]

I feel you. I DO like the zoom meeting one I do which would work for you if you could find one in your area. The one I do is hard enough with the three time zones we're all in. Having someone across the pond would make it even more troublesome timewise (I'm doing these free lecture tours of europe but I can barely see any of them because what's 6 pm there is the middle of the work week here).

If you're looking for a low pressure critique group (we're slow, sending in critiques every 6 weeks) that I can provide but I'm not sure it feels like a community such as you get in person (then again I've been in bad ones in person so there's that too)

[lucy_roman]

I do like the sound of a low pressure critique group. And slow is good!

[cornerofmadness]

If you decide you want to know more or see a sample of a critique DM me. I will say the two remaining members write more urban fantasy style stuff (i.e. me and Scott) but we've had all genres. About the only thing we're terrible at critiquing is poetry

[spikedluv]

I don't think I've ever had a writing community. The main thing for me is timing; I do most of my writing early in the day, and other people tend to do their's later, like after work, when my brain has turned to mush.

[cornerofmadness]

there are a lot of people who write in the morning, however yeah I think they do it solitary because places to meet up wouldn't even be open. I'm the opposite, my brain is mush in the morning.

[shanachie_quill]

I used to be very active on writing.com and I still have friends from there, but I've never had an in person writing community. I wish I did. I did Shut Up and Write for a few weeks with my sister, but she had to stop because of personal reasons.

There are two in person groups in town, but one is very snotty and doesn't let just anyone in and the other is at our library so I don't feel comfortable sharing things. Especially with a teenager (and her father staring at us) during the one meeting I attended.