From Coffee To Books

I started going to a writers’ group that met once a month at Strathpine Library.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a writers’ group in general.  I understood it to be a place where writing was read out and feedback was given.  The Strathpine Writers’ group don’t do that, but they do bring in people to talk about self-publishing or creating magazines or other areas of interest.  Because I specifically wanted a feedback group, myself and a couple of other ladies began to meet a week afterward at the Coffee Club, where we were initially reading our stuff and critiquing it on the spot, but now perform a round robin style critique.  We called ourselves the Critique Club.  Which I feel is very Nancy Drew, and it makes me smile.

The feedback is gold.  People pay for reader reviews, and we’re each getting them for free.  It doesn’t matter that we’re all novices, because getting a writer’s feedback picks up on things that a writer looking at their own work might miss.  That said, I do make final call on some things; if one thinks something is awesome while the other thinks it needs to be cut down, I’ll decide based on what I think.  But if they both find the same flaw, I would be a fool to ignore it.

Just through vague networking – meeting other writers – we’ve already found two more people interested in the group.  We get dirty looks from the staff at the Coffee Club because we only order one coffee each and stay for 2 hours.  Hah!  Isn’t that what a coffee shop is for?  It’s not the most ideal situation for us, either, so I visited my local library in Kallangur and spoke to the head librarian there.

Gosh, they were keen for me to establish a writer’s group there.  Looks like there’ll be one last Coffee Club meeting, and the Critique Club will soon become the Kallangur Writers’ Group.

Funny how things work out.  I wasn’t expecting to organise a new group, but it’s not a difficult thing to do: Get a couple of people, find a suitable location, draw up an agenda.

As long as these groups inspire me to keep writing and not take my time away from it, this should be a very positive thing.