I’ve been doing research on starting and conducting a good writing group, as well as on the critiquing process. Things are really coming along and I can’t wait to announce it at church. I won’t be able to do that until next weekend, so my thought is to start late September and run it every other week.
In the midst of that, I kept thinking to myself that I need tell Tom about this. This morning it dawned on me that he reads my blog so he already knows and has probably guessed where the meetings will be held, at least for the first couple of meetings. Our church is currently in the midst of construction on another building where our midweek functions will be held. Until that happens, it’s going to be Chez Kirchner.
Sorry, honey.
Writing groups are all conducted in different ways and, after reading some of the suggestions, I was worried that our time as a group would not be spent wisely (or fun). Some groups like to get together and do writing games where they pick a theme and then write as much as you can off the top of your head for a certain amount of time, then go around the circle and read what they produced. I’m not really into that. Instead, I’m taking a nod from some of the websites I perused and have everyone prepare material beforehand, print enough copies for the group, and then we’ll do the reading and critiquing together. I also liked the recommendations for people not to constantly be late and, if they haven’t prepared enough for the week, then don’t come. We’ll see how well I stick to that, considering how great I am at conflict and laying down the law.
Stop laughing!
After some diligent Googling, I was able to find two websites that helped me determine guidelines for the upcoming group. The first handy website is a list of what NOT to do and the second one is a list of what to do. Very helpful reads for me.
Because I’m such an eager beaver (har) I found a pretty good website that gives guidelines on how to critique and the questions each person should be asking as a piece is being read. The only portion Dorothy disagreed with is the bullet that talks about not voicing your opinion on content. I have to say that I agree, since what I needed help on recently was a content issue.
My guess is that we’ll start meeting on Mondays, every other week. The question is the starting date. I’m not sure on that yet. That’s a discussion that will involve Tom’s actual input, as opposed to reading all about it here. 