Do you feel alone without any writing support? You may belong to a writing association that is too far away for you to travel to. You may belong to an on-line chapter of a writing association that is not enough of a substitute for that face to face fun you can have with like-minded writers.
Tanya Freedman founded the Jolly Good Writers Group (JGWG) over two and half years ago. Six women joined this group in a fluid way to meet everyone's needs, and adjust and learn from exercises and new ideas.
If you'd love a customized group that will give you and the other members a special kind of support, weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly - to help you with that fix of inspiration and accountability, then why not start your own group?
Read the following pages to learn more about what to look for in other groups and how to create your own win-win writing group that will meet your and all your members' needs:
Sample Questions To Determine the Needs of Your Members - Scroll down For some Ideas for Creative Writing ExercisesScroll Down About the Original Jolly Good Writers Group Go to Jolly Good Writers Group About Critiquing Go to The Quality and Etiquette of Critiquing
Questions To Determine The Needs Of Your Members
You may want to answer some questions in your group, regarding what the individual members would like to gain from their meetings.
·How often do you want to meet: weekly, bi-weekly or monthly meetings?
·Do you want to critique each other's work?
·Do you want to share the progress of members' different projects?
·Do you want to engage in some creative prose or poetry exercises, and have feedback?
·Do you want to invite guest speakers?
·Do you want to have it in a private residence, on a rotational basis, or would you prefer to meet in neutral territory such as a library or coffee shop?
·What is the mission of the writing group?
·Is one person going to be chairing the meetings, or is it going to be rotated on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis?
There are no wrong or perfect answers, only what will be mutually effective for all the committed members. JGWG keep it an intimate, private and supportive membership.
Some Ideas for Creative Writing Exercises
When is the right time for exercises? You'll have to determine what works for your group. In the JGWG, after the first twenty minutes of reconnecting over refreshments, any member might suggest an exercise that can be undertaken, and take turns in what its subject or purpose may be. Members bring in writing books with exercises giving choices that appeal to most if not all members. See below some examples of some of the books used. In the past year, a system has been devised thanks to the constant improvement discussions during the meetings, that a chair is assigned for each bi-weekly meeting. This person would bring a couple of choices of exercises.
Members of the JGWG like trying different exercises. The following list gives some examples. Hopefully, this will give you ideas for your own group:
·Haiku, (or other short poetry)
·Short dialogue of a scene we insert in our own setting and story
·Character sketches such as creating a secondary interesting but not clichéd character or walk-on part that adds meaning to a scene
·Characteristics described in metaphor, similes etc.
·Poetry written from three random word associations given to each other
·Developing emotion through six senses (see, hear, touch, taste, smell, feel,)
·Descriptions
·Plotting, etc
·Brainstorming of any members’ needs on new or works in progress (wip).
Additional ideas that have worked well:
Writing a scene to practice 'show' rather than 'tell'
Taking a paragraph of dialogue (generated by each other or from books) and writing in the subtext and additional story lines that shed a completely different light on the piece.
All agreed that all the exercises invite the creative muse and stirs the pot of dormant or rusty stories to come alive like magic. There have been been occasions where starting lines and exercises have inspired further short stories or pieces that have been used in works in progress.
Some examples of books used:
- Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg - Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook - Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress - In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit - Write Now by Sarah Quigley
There are so many books on improving your crative writing, check out your library or book store and practice the exercises.