Writer's Groups: Are They Worth Your Time?

Chat Groups

Chat groups are arguably the most similar to face-to-face writer's groups. All of the major online services, America Online, Prodigy, and Compuserve, have such groups. Dozens of groups can be found through IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. This is a real-time chat where people can meet regardless of their Internet service provider. Once you have downloaded and installed the IRC software, follow the directions provided to access the index of available chats. (Warning: This could be time consuming as there are thousands on a variety of topics.) Like traditional groups, these chats are set on a routine basis, usually weekly. Formats vary from group to group. Try out different groups or begin one of your own.

E-mail Groups

E-mail groups are the least structured but they usually provide feedback quickly and in a large volume. These groups are as different as the people who create them. No two are alike so giving exact descriptions would be impossible. Some groups are primarily for submitting your work for critique and critiquing the works of others. Some are genre-specific, others are not. Some have exercises, discussion topics, market information, and/or writing tips. Others are simply a place for writers to get together and socialize. Over a hundred e-mail groups can be found at ONElist. Information on my e-mail group can be found at my site, The Write Site. Finding a quality e-mail group is hit and miss. You may have to go through twenty-five groups before finding one that suits you. Fortunately, there are more than enough to go around.

Now that you've found or started a group, locally or online, how do you give and recieve help? Critiquing, the building block of most groups, is a skill that needs to be learned. It not only makes you more useful to your writer's group, but it can help you improve your own writing. Next week, we'll discuss ways to give critiques which are both helpful to and respectful of the writer.

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