How Do I Find Writing Groups?

After the glamour of having a jackhammer in my basement yesterday, I return to work today. But before I leave you for the weekend, I wanted to discuss writing groups.

I can’t stress enough the importance of finding like-minded people to beta read your work, especially if you are serious about publishing. We have two groups in our little town. The first is the Jefferson City Writers’ Group, which encompasses all types of writing from children’s books to poetry to short fiction to novels. The second is the Jefferson City Novelists Group or JCNG. This group focuses on novels and some short fiction. The facilitator of the group even does workshops tackling particular areas of writing.

JCNG is meeting on the 16th of this month and I am preparing a list of plot holes and questions that I need to have answered in order to proceed with my revision. I am starting to believe I am overthinking this just a bit. Therefore, objective writers could give me a lot of perspective.

So you may wonder how I came across these groups. The first one meets at our public library. The public library is an excellent source of information and it is not uncommon for writing groups to meet there. The second group I found on www.meetup.com, though they advertised on the library’s bulletin board.

Our Meetup leader schedules meetings and we can make reservations, comments, etc. all through the site. It is a very nice way to find like-minded people, but it does have a fee associated to it for the facilitator. It is free to the users.. If you are looking for a critique group or even just a fun group of people to read your work and answer your questions, I suggest checking both of these places out in your community. If all else fails, you can meet people in the NaNoWriMo Forums.

I have been making a list of items I wish to discuss at our next JCNG meetup. Most of it has to do with the first two chapters. I feel like I don’t have an established conflict early on. I have started to think of ways to fix it, but before I go to the trouble of trying to revise it, I want some outside perspective.

In other news, Camp Nanowrimo is approaching April 1. Signups are going on now and cabin mates (if you choose to join a cabin) will be assigned about a week before Camp starts. My goal during the month of April is to utilize my cabin mates in my revision process and to add 10,000 words to my manuscript by the end of the month. I think I will do more than that, but since I haven’t added a one so far, I thought I would set the bar low and surprise myself. Camp is relaxed compared to the November event–you set your own goal. Give it a try before you dive into November’s craziness. You might find you like it.

Well, that is it for today folks. Tune in Monday– I will hopefully have another short story Monday or Tuesday. Happy Friday, all, and enjoy the weekend! I intend to take my cat, Oscar, outside to enjoy the 60 degree temps.