Today we’re exploring how we bring the diversity of our knowledge, skills, and personalities to our metaphorical table and use them to better understand and improve our own writing.

Discovering Each Other’s Personalities and Talents

We vary in educational background, knowledge of writing mechanics, and experience with different writing platforms/theories: Story-a-Day, The Write Practice, Author Accelerator, etc. The one we have in common is DIY MFA. As we mentioned last time, we met in Small Group Coaching, belong to the HUB, and have taken DIY MFA 101 and/or Pixels to Platform. 

We vary in our approaches to the novels each of us is trying to revise. Liz makes progress by plugging faithfully away, focused on one story. To avoid pulling out her hair, she mixes her approach by setting word goals, using the Pomodoro Technique, and entering writing challenges like NaNoWriMo. 

Brenda and Soleah take inspiration from brief sojourns away from their novels to generate new stories they bring to us for feedback. In that way, Brenda won an honorable mention in Writer’s Digest’s annual contest last year, and Soleah’s story won the Grand Prize of Short Fiction Break‘s Spring Writing Contest. These wins are fantastic because they bolster each writer’s confidence so she can return to editing with enthusiasm. 

Janet struggles mightily to get words on the page, and only dire threats help. She uses The World’s Most Dangerous Writing App, a site where you have a couple minutes to write continuously—as in, don’t stop for more than three seconds or the app erases everything you’ve written. Yikes. That only happened once; she swore briefly, then started again. She wrote twelve scenes that way.

Our different approaches show us, up-close, other ways of writing, allowing us to challenge ourselves to write better. We absorb each other’s knowledge and make it work for us. 

To Paraphrase Tina Turner, What’s Alchemy Got to Do with It?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, alchemy is “a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.” So, what has transformed for us individually because of our group? 

We did a quick internal poll to determine key changes:

• Stronger sense of accountability, both in producing writing consistently and in giving each other well-considered feedback
• Stronger belief that I am a writer; belonging to the group is a constant reminder of this identity and of why we want to write
• Joy that comes as the group expresses its pride whenever one of us masters a new skill, meets a word count goal, publishes something, etc. 
• Technical improvement; clearer sentences, etc. 
• The ongoing reminder that although writing is hard work, it’s fun.

More Transformation: Internalizing Each Other’s Editorial Voices 

An unexpected indicator that our group works was when we began to hear each other’s voices in our heads. 

Early on, Brenda was flummoxed by the Oxford comma, quotation-mark rules, and the dreaded sentence fragments she learned were peppering her story. With much gentle nagging from Janet (oops—see our next article on missteps!), Brenda eventually absorbed the rules organically into her drafts. Sentence fragments remain but with a purpose, and she now can engage in the great Oxford comma debate. This growing understanding of mechanics gave her the knowledge she needed to feel confident while giving and receiving advice.

Janet had an entirely different problem. She dawdled at finishing revisions because of a long-standing feeling that the “hero” in her romance is stupid and boring. Much to her shock, from the beginning Soleah effusively crushed on this fellow. Janet still finds that hilarious, but in moments of despairing that this character is hopeless, she’s grateful for the memory of Soleah’s swooning, “Ah, Rick!” It gives Janet confidence not to toss the novel. Similarly, Brenda’s “Just get ‘er done!” admonishment rises up to haunt Janet. In a good way.

Liz’s rich technical detail lets the reader visualize her futuristic world; however, we’re often kept at an emotional distance from her main character. Janet continuing to ask Liz what her main character is feeling made her stop and wonder why it’s easier to imagine her other characters’ emotions more readily. This sent Liz on a path of self-discovery where she realized that to fully examine her main character’s inner workings, she had to come out of hiding and safely confront her own past. Now Janet’s questions about emotions and characters pop into her mind whenever she’s fleshing out a new scene or re-writing an older one. 

Soleah adds four languages to our cauldron. One of her native languages is French, so this group has been a blessing in giving her people who can closely read her English novel. The “commode” story is now a legend among us. In an earlier novel draft, Soleah used this word over and over, until Brenda and Janet finally couldn’t stay in the scene any longer. The character was putting food on the commode? Soleah was blissfully ignorant that what she wrote was far from what we read. In French, commode means a chest of drawers. In Canadian/American English, it means toilet. We all got a good laugh, and now the word is shorthand for “Please proofread this story for me. I don’t want any commode in there.”

Being Authentic 

Despite our many differences, our values and moral compasses are similar. This gives a basis for being less defensive and more trusting of each other’s suggestions. And in this business, trust is everything. 

Our Zoom meetings rarely stop under three hours as we often digress into the realm of real life. Because we genuinely are fond of each other, we often get caught up helping discover solutions to personal challenges. We’re all strongly protective of each other and regularly share unsolicited—sometimes annoying—but usually helpful advice. Inevitably, one of us diplomatically steers the conversation back to writing.

When it comes to writing, having these three other voices helps us step out of our own tunnel vision about our stories. No, we don’t always follow each other’s advice—about life or writing. But we do stop to think about what rings true.

By allowing ourselves to incorporate our personal lives into our weekly sessions, we’ve come to know each other well and can, to paraphrase Gabriela, honor each other’s reality. 

As good as our group is, it hasn’t always run as smoothly as you might think from our enthusiastic description. We did make mistakes along the way. Stay tuned for our next article.

What about you and your writing group? 

Can you think of special knowledge or a talent you can contribute to a critique group? (Please don’t think you don’t have one!) And what skills and/or perspectives are you missing that critique partners could provide?

A Discovery of Writers is made up of four DIY MFA Small-Group Book Coaching graduates who were partnered in the program in 2020, stayed together after our terms ended, and have turned into a tight, very effective writing support group. We love how we work together and would like to explore/share our experience with the Word Nerd community. For more about us individually you can find us here.

The post The Alchemy of Personalities and Talents in a Writing Group appeared first on DIY MFA.

Come in with clear intentions

Whether you’re joining a community workshop or forming a smaller, more focused group, be clear about what you and your peers are getting out of the arrangement. A meeting can be a deadline, an idea generator, or a place to polish your work. Sharing your level of commitment will help you understand if it fits with the group’s — I’ve seen a well-meaning community workshop hijacked by a zany drop-in who insisted we didn’t appreciate his exquisite haiku. A classic case of rampant ego seeking only validation, the solution might be to…

Set and respect boundaries

On a functional level, having a healthy writing group means establishing a general structure and organization. At my novel group’s first session, we decided on bi-weekly meetings, approximately 3,000 words submissions, and comments via Google Docs. Everyone sends their work with enough time to read, critique, and prepare notes on the group’s feedback. Respecting boundaries makes them real and reinforcing the system reduces interpersonal friction. This means when we meet, our full focus is on our writing rather than guzzling wine to assuage petty frustrations. Which isn’t to say, there’s never wine…

Give freely

Having a healthy writing group means giving freely. The more I read my group’s work, the more my pseudo-parental pride bursts from me — I’ll be biking home from the library and I’ll have an idea about someone else’s book. I’ll be more excited to read their chapters than edit my own. So I tell them. By giving freely, the group becomes more than a bi-weekly three-hour video conference with additional reading and editing work. It’s a nurturing ecosystem of support, ideas, and writerly energy. That said, if someone casually quadruples their word count, I’m comfortable re-establishing the discussed boundaries. Rules two and three go hand in hand.

Create space for diversity and differing opinions

The essence of writing is translating your thoughts to the reader, and having diverse editors — be it in race, age, gender, sexuality, nationality, and even writing experience — helps enormously with this clarity. Diversity also means creating a space for differing perspectives to be heard. If someone is shaking their head or pursing their lips, I’ll dare myself to say, “You look like you disagree.” Other times silence can be an indicator: “Do you have any thoughts on this?”

As satisfied as my college classmate must’ve felt when his best friend parried my criticism, workshopping isn’t about always having someone in your corner. Constant affirmation may boost your ego at the expense of your manuscript. And if you’re not in a place to integrate feedback, maybe it’s better to share your work with a kind friend or furry companion.

Embrace the process over the outcome

This is also known as “growth mindset,” a wonderful concept in life and writing. While I have dreams of a book deal which lands my novel on both sides of the Atlantic, this fantastical outcome is not the main reason I’m in a writing group. I show up because I want my book to be the best it can be, and as my cohort patiently corrects my bad habits, my writing is improving.

What’s more, it’s a virtuous cycle — as I become a better reader and editor, I also become a better writer. And the process is so enjoyable, I find myself diving into revisions eager to implement the ideas that came from our previous meeting. After slogging through years of drafts of my first novel, I’m so much happier and more efficient, I can’t even self-identify as a tortured artist.

A few days ago, another woman in my group and I submitted our novels’ final chapters. Paris’ bars and restaurants are closed and we have a 6 P.M curfew, so after our weekly library writing date, we took a bottle of wine to the quays. It was a cheeky 4:30 P.M happy hour and worth every minute. As we toasted to our hard-earned progress, I couldn’t have been further from the intimidated freshwoman with an inadequate vocabulary — that workshop skirmish was merely a misstep on the path to healthy literary relationships.

In case you’re feeling inspired to start a new relationship, I host a monthly writer’s workshop through Paris Lit Up. We’re free and currently virtual, and you’re welcome to join and put this list to Practice.

Gracie Bialecki is a writer and literary coach who lives in Paris, France. Her work has appeared in The Atticus Review, Monkeybicycle, and Epiphany Magazine where she was a monthly columnist. Bialecki is the co-founder of the storytelling series Thirst, a poetry editor at Paris Lit Up, and the author of the novel Purple Gold (ANTIBOOKCLUB).

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The Rigorous Road

Everybody’s heard of that one writers’ group member. The one who writes the same poem/short story/novel over and over. Over the years, their work never deepens or develops past the greeting card stage. They’re stuck. While there could be a number of reasons — fear, ignorance, etc. — for their stasis, one culprit is lack of rigor in their writing life.

Rigor is the work (as well as the quality of that work) you invest in learning a skill and gaining mastery over it. Here’s what that means in real time; it takes 20 hours to learn a new skill and 10,000 hours to master it.

Sounds daunting, doesn’t it? I won’t gloss over the effort a mature writing life takes. It requires exactitude, thoroughness, and a methodical approach.

Mapping the Way

I apologize for misleading you a bit here. Sadly, I know of no single step-by-step map to incorporating rigor into your writing life. However, here are key parts to get you started. Instead of focusing on becoming a better writer, methodically work on a specific process goal. Ultimately, all process goals lead back to your original goal better writing.

Choose a specific process goal

Such as improving dialogue skills. Track your progress using tools which suit your writing practice. I use Google Docs; I find the simpler, the better works for me. Some writers prefer spreadsheet programs and other specialty apps.

Research

Compile a list of best practitioners from librarians, critics, and other authors as well as your own favorites. Analyze how the experts’ work differ from each other and your own. Make notes on your impressions and any memorable writing excerpts. Make a list of the books and articles you read.

Write

Use elements of the experts’ work in producing your own. Record what techniques spurred your imagination, how much you write, and the frequency of writing.

Quality control

The underlying goal is to improve your writing. Choose critique partners and beta readers to act as quality control. Their editing and feedback helps to illuminate your weak spots and strengths.

Compass Points

Use your writing faults, gifts, and curiosity as the lens to direct your goals

If dialogue is your achilles heel, delve into the novels of Elmore Leonard and Jen Frederick. Your descriptions are lyric masterpieces, so revel in Erin Morgenstern and Jonathan Safran Foer.

Read (and write) with increasing complexity

Stretch your reach; read outside your comfort zone. If you usually read cozy mysteries, pick up a sci-fi short story collection. If romances dominate your reading time, read across the romance spectrum from Amish to shape shifter, historical to sci-fi and beyond. Read romances written by women of color. Pick up an asexual romance.

Experiment with different writing forms

Check out other genres such as ghazals, 10-minute plays, creative nonfiction, and songwriting.

Don’t neglect the role serendipity plays in the writing life

Collect the things that make you curious. Your collections need not be physical; snapshots and recordings easily serve as keepsakes. Stay open to the unexpected —  meeting a new writer, an invitation to collaborate, or an intriguing new topic.

Companions for the Journey

Any new endeavor generates questions. A safe place to ask is a necessity.

College courses and writing workshops encourage participants to ask questions in and outside of class hours. However, many of us can’t quite fit a semester-long class or intensive workshop into our budgets or schedules.

This is where writing groups — in-person and online — shine.  Most groups have members across the spectrum from newbie to professional writers and published authors.

I belong to two Facebook writing groups: “The Write Life Community and Writer’s Digest Community Discussion & Critique. The Write Life group, run by TheWriteLife.com, is a public Facebook group with 18,175 members. The Writer’s Digest group is a closed Facebook group but membership requests are evaluated and approved within 2 business days. It has 641 members. In both, questions are responded to quickly by multiple members to provide a well-rounded answer.

Sometimes it’s best to be one of a crowd and try new things with other newbies. My library writing group explores writing outside members’ usual genres. The group has hosted songwriting workshops and poetry open mics, as well as talks on fan fiction and the importance of memorization on writing.

Another way to get answers is DIY MFA’s newest column, Ask the Editor, written by Elisabeth Kauffman.  The Q&A column addresses “the nuts and bolts of the craft, the wit and whimsy of imagination”.

Rigor doesn’t have an expiration date. You never outgrow the necessity (or desire) to be a better writer. I won’t promise you’ll be the best writer in the world if you take a rigorous approach to writing. But I can promise you’ll become the best writer you can be.

Brenda Joyce Patterson is a poet, writer, librarian, and lover of short writing forms. Her poetry and flash fiction have been published in Vayavya, Gravel Magazine, and Melancholy Hyperbole. Along with works by Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Alice Walker, her travel essay “The Kindness of Strangers” appeared in Go Girl: The Black Woman’s Guide to Travel and Adventure.

The post Building Rigor into Your Writing Process appeared first on DIY MFA.

Local Writing Groups:

1. In-person contact: My local writers group has become my writing family, and I’m not the only one who’s had such a great local experience. I’ve gotten lots of positive comments about how much you all love your local groups. It’s been a pleasant surprise. I expected stories of frustration or bad experiences, but I’ve gotten none. Only glowing reviews of how much other writers love spending time with their local groups.
2. Scheduled meeting times : Carving out weekly write time is hard with crazy schedules, and finding motivation to write can be as fickle as sand slipping between your fingers. Whether it’s a weekly write-in or a scheduled retreat, a local group forces us to enter a set time for writing into our calendars.
3. Shared Knowledge: Other writers aren’t just friends, they’re work colleagues. Hanging out and chatting is a learning experience. I never know what I’ll get from my group whether it’s related to  craft or business or ideas for my writing. My group has been a font of invaluable information for everything from plotting to pitching. I learn things from them that I don’t even know I don’t know yet.
4. Critique partners: I’m big on a “getting to know you” with my crit partners. It’s such an intimate relationship, not unlike dating. If I’m going to bare my soul and surrender my writing to someone, I prefer to trust that they won’t rip it to pieces and break my heart in the process. Getting to know another writer over weeks and months helps me feel safer when it’s time to share my writing. It also allows me to be a better critiquer in return. When I know a writer well before critiquing his or her work, I know what things  need highlighting and what things need more sensitivity.

  Online Writing Groups:

1. Daily contact: I can’t meet with my local group every day, so for that I turn to my online community of writers. I love checking my email and forums for responses from my online groups. They give me daily support in my own living room. It helps me feel connected with other writers even when I’m home alone.
2. Convenience: Sometimes getting out to a local meeting is not possible. Schedules, families, and location can make in-person contact impractical or impossible. Over email swaps, I have made great friends with writers online. Their messages in my inbox frequently make my day.
3. Specific genres: Even if you do have a local group, it can still be hard to find people who write in your specific genre. Broader genres have niches these days. It’s not just fantasy or romance or mystery anymore. There’s genres within genres. Having a group who writes a variety of genres is a bonus for keeping ideas fresh, but online you can find others who write in your specific niche.
4. Critique Partners: Though I prefer a “get to know you” period with my critique partners, I confess that I have posted my writing online. Sometimes it results in helpful feedback, other times not. The filter of the internet makes it easier to forget there’s a person behind the work. I’m guilty of forgetting too. I critique differently for a friend I know well, than a stranger online. When you don’t know someone personally, it’s a lot harder to know what might be offensive and what might be helpful. Hunting for crit partners online requires thicker skin. Though at times having the more objective opinion of a stranger is invaluable too.

Try a variety of groups, online and in-person. Shop around until you find what’s right for you. Remember, different groups can help with different aspects of writing, and if something doesn’t go well, give it another try. Sometimes it can take a while to understand a group’s dynamic well enough for it to feel like home. If it doesn’t work, try another one. There’s countless kinds. There’s probably one for you.

And if what you’re looking for doesn’t exist, there’s always the option to start one of your own. We’ll talk some about that next time.

Be brave, invest the time to find what works best for you. Your writing is worth it.

Robin Lovett, also known as S.A. Lovett, writes contemporary romance, and her debut novel, Racing To You, will be released July of 2016. She is represented by Rachel Brooks of the L. Perkins Agency and has a forthcoming series releasing with SMP Swerve in the summer of 2017.

She writes romance to avoid the more unsavory things in life, like day jobs and housework. To feed her coffee and chocolate addictions, she loves overdosing on mochas. When not writing with her cat, you can find her somewhere in the outdoors with a laptop in her bag. Feel free to chat with her on Twitter.

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