Why You Should Join A Writing Group

By Irene Bassett
(Read the original post here)

Recently, Greg Manuel wrote a very passionate piece arguing about the cons of joining a writing group. He brought up some good points, and I agree with a lot of them, however, I feel that it is important to point out some of the benefits of joining a writing group. I will also address Mr. Manuel’s point about time wasting posts that drown out everything else, which is quite a valid concern and quite frankly the biggest con of a writing group. But first, a bit of my personal history.

I’ve been a member of about five different writing group, and each one is different. My first writing group was called Creative Writers and it was relatively small. The person who ran it had left, and somebody picked it up and ran with it. Around this same time, I joined a second writing group called Fiction Writing. They were vastly different beasts, not just because they were different sizes, but also ran differently. Creative Writers’ admins had a laissez-faire way of handling posts, and I liked it for a time. Fiction Writing was a bit stricter in its posting and seemed to be dominated by juggernauts who posted acceptance letters daily. I also joined one called Ninja Writers, which was structured similarly to Fiction Writing, but I didn’t find it as engaging. There is also The Inner Writer’s Circle, which is a small but up-and-coming group with some excellent material from the owner, as well as Mr. Manuel’s very own Writer’s Lounge. For the most part, however, I kept myself to Fiction Writing and Creative Writers, and my experiences in these two groups have influenced me and my opinion greatly. As such, I will be approaching this analysis from my perspective within these two groups.

Facebook Writing Groups do have some great benefits in my opinion – the first being you have easy access to a wealth of knowledge and experience. You also have access to a network of authors who know magazines that are accepting submissions, as well as where to find great editors. And lastly, you have access to a group of people who will support you – so long as you support them back. These three points are the fundamentals of why I support the idea of joining a writing group.

The first point I have is the access to the wealth of knowledge and experience. I have learned more in the past year about outlining, connecting with agents, writing a tighter plot, and correcting my own grammar than I have in the past decade of schooling and independent research. Fiction Writing was the biggest contributor to that, as they are a massive group of about 30k members, with a combined experience of at least 100 years between them. Creative Writers eventually got to that point, and I was proud to be a member of the more seasoned veterans in that group. Fiction Writers, however, was always my go-to source for information on outlines and the nitty-gritty of writing. Brian Paone, who runs Fiction Writing posts daily tips on everything from marketing to common mistakes he sees as an editor. Creative Writers was better for bouncing ideas around and seeing what others thought of them. It was a great experience, but Creative Writers was honestly much better for the next point – networking.

One of the most important things an author can do in this era of the internet is networking. Facebook, a social network is the perfect avenue for this. You can connect with other authors and editors, and learn what places are accepting submissions. You are building a network when you add friends on Facebook. You are involving yourself in a network when you join a writing group. Good writing groups will have members posting places that are accepting submissions. Good writing groups will give you experiences they’ve had with magazines and with copy editors. But most importantly, they will also let you connect with some editors who want to work with you. Creative Writers was good for that – I met two editors in Creative Writers, both of which did excellent jobs with the pieces I’ve sent to them, and for a decent price. This would not have been possible had I not been in Creative Writers (a network). Fiction Writing’s very own Brian Paone also does editing, and it is a bang-up job for a very good price. But editors aren’t the only people you should connect with. You should also connect with your fellow writers.

One obvious example is the relationship between myself and Mr. Manuel. I would not be writing this piece, and you would not be reading it if it weren’t for the friendship and respect I’ve developed for Mr. Manuel over the past few months of working with him. And it was all through networking that this was made possible. It’s also through networking that I met several other authors, such as Matthew Brockmeyer and Steven Carr. These two men are people whom I respect greatly. Mr. Brockmeyer showed me an excellent platform to pitch my novels to indie presses, while Mr. Carr always keeps an eye sharp for magazines accepting short stories. All of this through the magic of networking. And with a network comes my final point – a writer’s network is also a writer’s support group.

Let’s face it, part of the game with writing is the grind of rejection letter after rejection letter. I didn’t see as many people posting about their rejections in Creative Writer’s as I do in Fiction Writing. But each time I do see an author posting about their rejection, the response was overwhelmingly positive. “You’ll get them next time,” was the most common reply. Or they would hit “like” as a show of silent solidarity. Very rarely did I ever see anybody blow a raspberry at a magazine for rejecting another’s work. In Fiction Writing, there was even a link to a blog post from a magazine editor explaining reasons why your piece might have been rejected – even if it was perfect. It certainly made it a lot easier to bear my own massive pile of rejection letters. But they aren’t just there for you when you get rejected – they’re there for you when you succeed. Your family might celebrate you finally getting published, but folks in a writer’s group know the grind. They know how hard it is. They know how much sweat, blood, and tears you’ve poured into a piece. They’ve been there, they are there. So, when they say “congratulations” you know it isn’t just a hollow piece of praise. It’s a praise with meaning. Writing is hard work, and nobody knows that better than writers. But, that also brings me to my next point. The time wasters, and honestly the biggest con to writing in the world.

Mr. Manuel and I both are in agreement that the posts that go along the lines of “What kind of music do you listen to when writing?” Or “Write a story in X words about Y thing” are the bane of a healthy writing group. Creative Writers at one point was inundated with these posts, and my timeline was often flooded with people responding to the low hanging fruit. It got so bad at one point that the administrative team decided to start deleting those posts, and I believe for a time, they did a weekly thread for that kind of writing. This alleviated the problem and allowed the authors to ask questions and get responses again. Fiction Writing doesn’t have quite as big a problem with it as Creative Writers did, but I suspect that’s because the size of Fiction Writing makes it so that those posts never see the light of day for more than a few minutes. But they are time wasters, and even worse, they are space wasters. For the love of writing, a group with these kinds of posts is a group that you should stay well away from. You will never get anything done, and you will never get any questions answered. Nor will you be able to answer any questions you may have. 

A writer’s group is a tool, like a knife or a shovel. You wouldn’t use a knife to dig a hole, and you wouldn’t use a shovel to chop an onion. With that in mind, you shouldn’t use a writing group to buff up your own ego, nor should you use it as another form of entertainment. If properly utilized, you can go far in your career as a writer. 



Irene Bassett has had stories featured on the NoSleep Podcast and CREEPY under the pseudonym Irene Stark and on blacktime e-press under the pseudonym Kenny Stark-Udar. Irene lives in Long Beach, California, and her primary email address is irenestark2017@gmail.com. Learn more about Irene here.