Every Writer Needs a Writers' Group
Collaboration is the secret sauce to a happy writing life
Planning my business trip to Manhattan back in the 1980s, I decided I’d stay at the Algonquin Hotel. I’d heard of the Algonquin Round Table, the group of wits, writers, actors, and critics who lunched together daily for the decade beginning in 1919. I wanted to see what they’d seen, sit where they sat, and imagine the words flowing from the likes of Dorothy Parker and Harpo Marx. I wanted a break from the universal sameness of the Marriotts and Hiltons and Comfort Inns. I got it.
Of course, the cabby taking me there tried to do a run-around and add a couple blocks to the trip. He wrongly assumed I’d never been to the Big City. I set him back the direct way and we soon pulled up to the towering 1902 hotel.
I was delighted with my choice. Old-fangled plumbing in my tiny room surely must have been in place when writer and cartoonist James Thurber lived in the hotel. Small white and black tiles covered the bathroom floor. The closet door had been thickened with repeated coats of white paint. I ate breakfast on red leatherette banquettes in the Round Table room, the very room used in earlier decades by the group of writers and cultural mavens. I imagined their clinking glasses and chuckles as I downed my orange juice the next morning.
At my meeting later that day, I sat by a couple from Cleveland. They asked and I shared where I was staying and was horrified when the woman — a native of Brooklyn or one such borough — dropped “I heard John and Jane Roach live there.” I immediately recalled the white powder along the baseboard in my historic vintage closet back at the hotel and the unusual chemical smell in a few spots. Oh, well.
Whatever urban shortfalls infested the hotel in the 1980s, it had at one time sheltered and cosseted creatives. For centuries, writers and other artists have banded together to share business tips, gain emotional support, be inspired, and learn.
Emily Dickenson, or at least the Emily of mainstream media, was an outlier, hiding and stuffing her poetry into the bureau drawer. Few writers are satisfied with only themselves as a reader. Despite the frequent portrayal of writing as a lonely endeavor, at its heart, writing requires an audience, other people. Writers’ groups offer a sympathetic audience and the opportunity to inch your work out, to give a nibble and see what happens, then repolish and get your work gussied up before going public.
Even in this day of self-publishing, anyone who has birthed a book knows delivering written work to readers is a collaborative process. Sorting through the scads of agents, publications, contests, publishers, promoters, competitions, book designers, and editors is daunting. Other writers in a writers’ group can help sift the good from the so-so.
Writers’ group meetings often feature writing exercises, presentations by experts, and sharing of work by members. Many groups work together to publish anthologies of their collective work which offers “published” status as well as practice in all the steps needed for publication. Members typically help each other develop their writing and promote it. They often serve as beta readers, provide endorsements for the book cover, offer reviews, and help with book launches.
Larger organizations provide websites with tools for “members only.” These can include an online bookstore, virtual presentations, newsletters, hints, and membership lists. Annual conferences, either virtual, in-person, or a combo, are popular. These large get-togethers often include the opportunity for members to pitch their work to agents and publishers.
Writers’ groups run the gamut in organization — from registered state, national, and international non-profits to a handful of neighbors who gather over coffee. They may be open to writers of any ilk or be specialized. For instance, women who write about the American West have formed a group; others, such as the Maryland Writers’ Association, are organized geographically. Some are free, others charge dues.
Information on groups can be found in an online search or by asking your local library or bookstore for tips. They are often listed in online sites such as Meetup, Facebook, and LinkedIn. For folks who may live in a more isolated area or have an offbeat schedule, online writers’ group can be a solution. Or a writer can start their own group. Two of my favorite writers’ groups began this way.
The Algonquin Round Table is no more, but the creative camaraderie it offered can be replicated right in your hometown. The Algonquin Hotel is now a Marriott. Sadly, the free hors d’oeuvres served to the Round Table wits disappeared decades ago. The free night’s lodging for touring authors and the lunch discounts for struggling writers disappeared with the last millennium. But, if you do go to Manhattan, you can still get a room in the historic hotel. And maybe, if you keep your ears and mind open, you will hear the faint echo of tinkling glasses, a giggle from Dorothy Parker, and Noel Coward’s urbane retort.
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Reviews are coming in for The Indenture of Ivy O’Neill
One of my favorites “…I couldn’t put it down even to do my housework!…I just wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could go back and read more!”
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