Writers’ groups are a fantastic resource for all writers. They provide much-needed motivation, as well as inspiration and practical help, not to mention the sense of camaraderie and shared ambition that comes from being in the company of other writers. But what can you do if there aren’t any writers’ groups in your area? Why not bite the bullet and start your own!
Where to find your first members
A good place to advertise is your local magazine or newspaper, and as you are advertising a not-for-profit venture that is for the good of the community, it might even be free! All you need is a line or two explaining that you want to start a writers’ group, and asking anyone who is interested to get in touch. Once a few people have contacted you – you’ve got a group! Your first meeting will be to set some ground rules and decide how you want the group to work – choose a relaxed venue, but as it’s really a business meeting, make sure that it’s somewhere that’s not too noisy. If you don’t want to hold the meeting in your home, a local coffee shop might be a good choice.
What to discuss
There is no need to draw up an exhaustive list of rules at this stage – you just want a basic framework so that everyone understands how the group will operate. You might want to put into place a basic committee; for example, a chair to run the meetings, a secretary to take care of administration, a treasurer if you decide to charge a subscription and perhaps people to be in charge of the website and advertising. Don’t try to do everything yourself – many hands make light work.
Venue
An important consideration is venue; do you want to hold the meetings in your own home, or take turns to host, or would you prefer to hire a hall? There are advantages and disadvantages to each. If you hold meetings in your homes, the biggest advantage is that it’s free of charge! The disadvantages are that not everyone might want to host a meeting, new members might feel uncomfortable at going to a stranger’s house and also the venue could change every month. The advantage to hiring a hall is that you will have a fixed venue so that new members, or returning members who have had a break, will always know where to find you. However, you will have to charge a subscription to cover the cost of the hall, and appoint people to collect money, pay for the hall and act as keyholder.
Check for ease of parking and what facilities are included – will you be able to make tea and coffee? Is the hall easy to find? If so, you may have found your group a home.
Frequency of meetings
How often do you want to meet? Monthly? Weekly? Are you going to have separate meetings for different genres – for example, short story writers and novelists, or beginners and more experienced writers? Or do you want to start with one meeting for everyone and see how things progress?
What will happen at the meetings?
There are lots of different ways to run a group. You could try having a monthly theme, so that everyone writes something on the theme, then distributes their work by email a week ahead of the meeting so that everyone can come prepared with comments. Or perhaps members could read out their work at the meetings. If you don’t want to have a theme, maybe members could bring along whatever they’re working on at the time.
Do you want to have write-ins, producing work actually at the meetings? Or would you prefer the group to act as an informal discussion forum, giving writers the chance to interact with other writers, without actually producing work for the group? Pick a format – and if you find that it isn’t working, you can always change it.
Advertising
All groups need a constant trickle of new members, and you need to think about how to attract them. You could have your meetings added to the ‘diary dates’ in your local magazine or newspaper, and if you write a short summary of each meeting, this could also be included. You could create some posters to put in local shops and libraries, or distribute flyers with your program for the year in bookshops, libraries and local businesses.
It’s a great idea to have a website – these are often free to set up, and many free hosting sites are designed to be very user-friendly, so don’t be afraid to have a go, even if you’re not a computer expert. Add your program to the website, and one or two ‘taster’ stories, and don’t forget to set up an email address for the group if you would prefer not to use your own. Check out my group’s website here for an example of a basic but functional website.
Congratulations – you have your very own writers’ group!
The next post in this series will explain what you can do to keep your group fresh and motivating.
Tracey Dawson is a long-term writers’ group member and chair, and also a committed compliance professional. She has combined her two passions in her fifth novel, which follows the offworld adventures of Greville the compliance auditor, which is available on Amazon here.