Why Writing Groups Are Like High Pressure Systems

Today I would like to tell you all that I am grateful for my writing group.  I know that I've expressed  frustrations about being in this group and not always feeling it fit my needs, but today they were a bigger help than maybe they even realize.

For the past two months I've been trying to work on finishing up my winning NaNoWriMo story.  While big changes at work didn't help me have time to write, I struggled with more than just the time crunch: I had hit a wall.  It wasn't just the plot or characters, but suddenly anything I wrote sounded flat and left a stale, cardboard taste in my mouth.  I was at a transitional, potentially pivotal, part of the story line and I couldn't get past it.  

It was the perfect hurricane of doubt: insecurity and perfectionism spinning together with a few key, unanswered questions sitting idly in the eye of the storm right above my head.  I wanted to swim away and break free, but the storm was so daunting that I didn't even know which way to go.  So I gave in and floated there, stranded at sea.

Today was my first opportunity to attend writing group since the new year (can I just say again that my work schedule in Jan and Feb was horrendous?) and I finally confronted my hurricane of doubt.  I started to explain my story to my group members and asked the questions that had been sitting in the eye of my own personal storm.

And you know what?  My group had insights that ultimately lead to answers.  It was as if they were a high pressure system moving in, lifting my spirits and sweeping my storm away.  For the first time in two months, I thought, "I can do this.  I can still write this story."

So the moral of today's story is don't be afraid to talk to other writer's about your frustrations.  Thinking I wouldn't find the help I needed held me back for months and while I'm not foolish enough to think moving onwards will be any less challenging, I certainly am more clear headed and optimistic about it.

Writer Seeking Writers

I don't know about you, but January was a blur of noise and emotion for me, some good and some bad.  It moved so fast that I had a hard time keeping up with my life and any sort of writing. 

February isn't looking to be any easier.  I see a mountainous terrain in my near future, where the obstacles of my work life are steep slopes slicked with ice.  However, this month I have pens in my hands and a net book strapped to my back.  I'm ready to climb this mountain one journal entry and short writing assignment at a time.  Maybe I'll get out of it more sane than I've left January.

And I might not be traveling alone.  Though I'm already a member of a critique writing group, I've been struggling for the past few months to produce anything at a stage where it needs critique.  If anything, I've been producing fragmented pieces that I haven't felt worth their time and effort to review (and maybe this has been my own fault and downfall).  And let me tell you, there is little as unsatisfactory as being in a group and being the only one a) not turning anything in or b) not feeling motivated to turn anything in.  That said, one of my major goals for this year is to find another writing group of some shape or form to support my writing.

Maybe that's what I've missed most from my current group: support.  While the other members (two wonderfully funny and smart women) are great to work with, I don't feel like I'm being encouraged to produce anything new, nor are they asking me to motivate them.  They are luckily motivated on their own.  So, I'm working on expanding my writing social circle to find others who, like myself, need and give moral support and encouragement.

I've joined a few groups since January.  The first was a motely crew of writers who I found through meetup.com, gathering together for the purpose of having shared writing time each week.  While the location and purpose of the group were well within my needs and wants, I felt very little connection with the writers who showed up.  My schedule has yet to allow me to go back, but maybe that's just fate telling me something.

The other group I've found seems more promising.  The Reader-Writer Roundtable is for writers who read, or readers who write.  What's more prefect than that?  The first meeting was a mere one hour, but I greatly enjoyed the company I was in.  The women were opinionated, but not fanatically so, and we all shared a love for the printed word.  E-readers, "the classics", and the merit of graphic novels (of which I'm a fan) were up for discussion.  Needless to say, I'll be going back and have optimism for this group's future.

I guess that's a good way to summarize my feelings towards February after a tumultuous January.  I'm optimistic as a writer seeking other writers to join her in her climb over this winter's obstacles.