As I wrote in the post WHY GROUPS CAN HELP WRITERS (October 9, 2007), a writing group is an evolving and powerful organism. There are many types of writing groups, of course, ranging from those where members read their work to each other for comment, to those where members gain the courage to start working in the first place, to those joined because members are having difficulty carrying out and finishing what they started. I work primarily with the last two groups, which can overlap. I should also add that I work primarily over the telephone on a bridgeline, so members can live literally anywhere .
Writers in the groups I'm writing about tend to have two major problems: with anxiety and/or with time management--general organization. The anxiety can stem from perfectionism or insecurities that have been reinforced by outside criticism. Problematic time management and organizational practices can be part of one's personality or come from a lack of knowledge of possibly better ways of doing things.
So how can a group help with such personal issues?
In the beginning, everyone who joins feels very alone with her or his struggle. Feelings of shame tend to be high, since struggle is often equated with failure and exacerbates fears about personal incompetence. Most people join these groups with mixed feelings of despair and hopefulness.
One of the first activities that can energize the group is to engage in a mutual endeavor: clearing the decks for action. This usually means creating, or rededicating, a space for the work, searching through old papers to pull together what has already been done, whether it's simply idea notes or raw data or previously written material. There is a certain relief in discovering that you have more than you thought. Coming together to share what members find is generally a positive experience, a good start. And a lot of great energy is generated by the group's genuine pleasure in each other's stories.
Members of the group can be in very different places on their project's timeline. In fact many find it too anxiety-provoking even to establish a timeline. For others it's a necessity or works very well. This is where people begin, quite early on, to provide models and more concrete help for each other.
Group leaders can structure the meetings and help members develop comfort with accountability; they can offer a variety of tools to reduce anxiety, ranging from visualizations to breaking down steps in the writing process into manageable pieces.
They can bring in many different approaches to time management and organization for members to experiment with, aware that one size does not fit all. They can focus on motivating and celebrating and lightening the burden of people who are often over-committed in the rest of their lives.
The positive effect of all of these activities is increased a hundredfold by the presence of other group members who understand what it is to lose focus or confidence at times. Often the writing project takes longer than the writer expected, because it isn't easy to let go of old mindsets and ways of doing things, even when they aren't efficient. The group's support becomes crucial as a gentle, yet inexorable push toward change.
In addition, members help each other in concrete ways. They suggest books and software programs that have been useful to them. They offer suggestions about collecting data. They share information of all kinds that they have collected along the journey. A number of heads are definitely better than one here.
There are many forms that writing groups can take. Some meet only over the internet, some in person, some over the phone. Some are peer groups, some have leaders who make sure the group continues in a structured fashion and who try to meet individual members' needs. If what you are writing is really important to you, and you feel stuck, I strongly encourage you to explore groups. One of them could be just the right kind for you.
One final note: Consider joining a group you have to pay for. When you put money down, the feeling of commitment tends to be stronger. That's human nature!
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