I Love My Writers Group

I joined a writer's group last summer. It happened in a roundabout way, via a friend who currently lives in New Zealand who used to be a DJ and is currently an actor. That friend noticed a few posts I had on Facebook regarding writing. He was nice enough to hook me up with a friend of his who lives in my general vicinity and who happens to be part of an active writers group. The group is an eclectic bunch that includes published authors, talented wordsmiths and academics - did I mention one woman (huge hero of mine) also rides motorcycles and is an accomplished tattoo artist when she's not at her dayjob?  I am truly in awe of these people. Lucky for me, they were willing to expand the circle and let me in.

I was able to go to meetings during the summer, but then I went on vacation and missed a few. Shortly after I came back from vacation I decided to go back to school. One of my classes met on Tuesday nights, which is the night my writers group meets. On top of all that, my other half was away on military duty. Sadly enough, that led to months of missing the weekly Tuesday night meetings. I kept in touch with them via the interweb, yet I wasn't happy about not being able to connect with them in person.

But lo and behold, tonight I finally got to go to my beloved Tuesday night meeting. Ah, what a sense of relief it was to sit around the table with all of those talented writers, exchanging stories and being able to talk about writing with other people who truly understand what goes into creating a short story or a novel. After all, writing is mostly an endeavor in solitude. It can be grueling, time consuming and maddening. However, it can also be a transcendental experience and an eye-opening journey.

Tonight, my group listened to me read from my novel, as they have before. I had employed the edits they so generously gave me all of those months ago. They noticed, and gave more advice. And I realized, in an instant, that their advice was so right, and so spot on, that I began creating the new scenes in my head as I sat around that table, in the busy bookstore, surrounded by people.

I love my writers group.