My Thoughts on Writing Groups.
I used to belong to one of the best writing groups on the internet. Why "used to"? Did I quit?
No, I am still a member. The group quit on me.
The group used to be a group. People were active- putting up chapters, critiquing chapters, commenting in the group chats.
Now, there are less than 10 people who engage in even the remotest of ways.
And that makes me very sad.
Writing is a lonely business. We get into our heads and live with our characters rather and interact with actual humans. I do understand that - I AM a writer and I am an introvert. But we have to engage with humans at some point.
When I am interviewed, quite often I am asked - what advice do you give a new writer?
My answer is usually - find a writer's group. The gigantic amount of knowledge available in a group is a true treasure.
In our group, we have indie authors, agented authors, best sellers, cover designers, formatters, editors - the list goes on.
A person could ask the simplest of writer related questions and be bombarded with knowledgeable advice.
And that vast library of knowledge is being ignored and wasted. Members will drop out. Our library will shrink. Human engagement will become less and less.
I guess my advice to new authors will be more along the lines of - get a good inline editing app.
Sad.
Very sad, indeed.
On a happier note - 2 months to Spring.
What's happening in January on Romance – Sweet to Heat
22 – Backlist Saturday Spotlight – Two O’clock with the Billionaire
23 – Weekend Writing Warriors #8Sunday
24 – #OpenBook Blog Hop
25 – SPOTLIGHT – Darren Simon - Tripp Unleashed
26 – Book Hooks #MFRWhooks #MFRWAuthor
27 – Flashette – free read
28 – My Blog. My Post. My Books
29 – Backlist Saturday Spotlight – Two O’clock with the Billionaire
30 – Weekend Writing Warriors #8Sunday
31 - #OpenBook Blog Hop
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I used to belong to a writers' group too. It ended up being that the same 4 people incessantly plugged their books. I don't belong to any groups now.
ReplyDeleteThat's sad. There isn't a lot of book plugging on our site. For a new release or for a fabulous review - but that's about it - which is a good thing!
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