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How Writing Groups Can Help Develop Your Writing

June 10, 2020 | By Ruth Heald | Reply More

The published writers I know have one thing in common. They’ve all worked for years to become overnight successes. It’s often difficult to see through their thousands of sales and glowing reviews, but behind it all there’s usually years of blood, sweat and tears.

When people ask me what makes a successful writer, I always come back to one thing: the determination to keep going against the odds. They keep going no matter how many times they are rejected. They can pick themselves up and go and sit alone and write hundreds of thousands of words, even though those words may never see the light of day.

It can be lonely, pouring words onto the page, with no idea whether people will even enjoy what you’ve written. And that’s where writing groups come in. A group of peers who understand. People who “get it” and are happy to talk for hours about creative blocks, character development and “what if” scenarios. Writing groups are also a brilliant place to get feedback on early drafts of your work, before you send it off to agents and publishers.

It can be scary to turn up at a writing group for the first time, prepared to share your writing. For lots of writers, their creative work feels very personal. Luckily, in most groups you won’t need to share your own work until you feel completely ready, and you can learn a lot from listening to others reading excerpts from their manuscripts, scripts or poems.

Hearing others’ work will help you find your inner editor. Sometimes it’s easier to see the wood from the trees in other people’s writing, and it’s great to be able to learn from what they do well as well as areas where their work might need refinement. This experience will help you to self-edit your own work.

The first time you submit your work for feedback from the group can be nerve-wracking, but there’s enormous benefit in doing so. You can find out which scenes work and which ones don’t, which characters seem realistic and which ones are still wooden. If a book’s gone through multiple drafts with a writing group, it will be a step ahead if you decide to submit it to agents and publishers and it will have a much higher chance of getting through the slush pile.

Feedback can be both positive and negative, and sometimes receiving it can be difficult. But critical feedback can highlight opportunities to make your writing better. That’s not to say you should religiously take on board every piece of advice. Think about who the feedback is coming from. If you’re writing romance, then don’t listen to the advice of someone who hates reading romance.

The best feedback will come from people who read widely in your genre. They will know the expectations of the genre and understand what readers enjoy. Sometimes feedback will feel bruising, but it’s always a good idea to take the time to consider whether it’s useful and whether you can take anything from it that will improve your writing.

Due to the current situation with Covid-19, more “real world” literary and writing events have moved online. Now you can “attend” literary festivals and writing workshops without having to leave your home. This is great news for those who live in more rural areas. Writing groups have always existed both online and offline. Online groups have many of the benefits of face to face groups without the need to travel.

There are lots of writers groups on Facebook, which are brilliant to join so you can chat about the ups and downs of writing and publishing. Finding a critique group can be a bit more tricky, and you may need to create one yourself.

This is a brilliant opportunity to set one up exactly how you’d like. You could have a monthly Zoom meeting where you read out and discuss everyone’s work. You might want to allow some time for breaks to do quick writing exercises, as well as some time for conversation. Or, if you don’t fancy video-calling, you could have an online forum where you all submit your writing and comment online. It’s completely up to you. A supportive and constructive writers group is worth its weight in gold.

So, if you want to take your work to the next level and you feel ready to give and receive feedback, I strongly recommend joining a writing group. It will help develop your writing, provide a support network and give your manuscript the maximum chance of standing out from the slush pile.

About Ruth Heald:

Ruth Heald is the bestselling author of psychological thrillers The Mother’s Mistake, The Woman Upstairs and I Know Your Secret.

Ruth studied Economics at Oxford University and then worked in an eclectic mix of sectors from nuclear decommissioning to management consulting. She worked at the BBC for nine years before leaving to write full time. Ruth is fascinated by psychology and finding out what drives people to violence, destruction and revenge. She’s married with two children and her novels explore our greatest fears in otherwise ordinary, domestic lives.

You can connect with Ruth on Twitter @RJ_Heald, or Facebook /RJHealdauthor

I Know Your Secret is Ruth’s latest book:

You’re not who you say you are. Neither is she.

She thinks she knows me.

She believes my marriage is falling apart at the seams, that my husband can barely look me in the eyes. She thinks I’m desperate for a baby, that my longing for a family keeps me up at night. As much as I hate to admit it, all of this is true.

She thinks I listen to her advice, that I care about her opinion. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Because she has no idea who I am. She has no clue that I know everything.

I know her secret. I know that she did the unforgivable. I know how many lives she ruined.

I know exactly what she did. And I’m here for her.