Finding inspiration in writing groups

Manuscript update: Current word count is 13,842. It’s coming along.

A new young adult/middle grade writers group has started up in my area, and I went to my first meeting last Saturday and will definitely be going back.

The second meeting of the new group, Saturday’s was focused on prioritizing techniques so we can all make sure we can get our writing time in with everything else — something true to my heart with this blog. But, I’ll be honest, I almost skipped the meeting because I thought, I’m good with organizing. I’ve carved out my writing time each day. I made the change to stop finding time to write and start making time to write a few years ago. I’m on top of it! (Even if I have been missing a lot of writing lately because of www.discdish.com.)

I went anyway, and I’m so  glad I did.

During the meeting, I learned lots of new ways of keeping my writing on track, one of which I’ve already incorporated: Set an event in your calendar/phone, whatever with an alarm, for the time you need to start writing with a reminder 15 minutes before. (Many thanks to my friend Chantee for this one.) If you want to read more of the techniques we learned, fellow YA/MG meeter Vonna Carter wrote about them.

But the most important thing for me that I took away from that group meeting is a feeling of support. I left feeling energized, and that I’m not alone in my writing. I’ve got all the people in that group in my corner, just like I’m in theirs. I get support from my critique group too, but it’s different. In critique group, we just work on our five pages. In this new group, we work on everything, and doing it with all these wonderful writers, feels great.

And in between the monthly meetings, we can keep in touch for mini inspiration with our Yahoo group.

One of the best parts is that at the end of the meeting, we all set goals to get done before the next meeting. They’ve been recorded so we can’t forget, and we’ll all support each other to get those done throughout the month. How great is that?

If there’s a group like this in your area, I recommend joining. If not, start up one yourself. Ask your local bookstore if you can put up a poster and/or set something up through your local SCBWI group.

Or keep an eye on this blog, and I’ll give you a jolt of inspiration after every one of my meetings.

Got any other writing support tips?

Write On!

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