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Creative WritingRealize Your Book’s Potential: Join (or Form) a Writer’s Group
by:
Seth Mullins
It’s a long road we writers travel between our initial ideas and a fully completed novel or even as a short story. Few of us possess the genius to fully flesh out every aspect – from character development and plot weaving down to the gritty details of setting and action – which is one reason why the critics can point out flaws even as in books that are considered to be classics.
Every writer has his or her own areas of expertise. Consider the benefits, then, of connexion
forces with others who are apt to have some strengths and weaknesses than you. This is what I find appealing – and, sometimes, even as essential – simply about writer’s groups.
The 1st benefit of being involved in a critique group is the simple encouragement. If you and your fellow members agree to meet, say, one evening a week – and each bring in NEW material to see – then that keeps each of you impelled to write. Inessential a novel can feel like such a nebulous goal. The end could be years down the road, provided we aren’t de-railed at any point between now and then. It’s a more much feasible ambition to churn out another ten pages to see next Tues at your group meeting.
The input of fellow writers can be priceless in inform
out strengths, weaknesses, and inconsistencies in our work. If you’re a novelist, then you’re probably aware of the degree of concentration that’s necessary to hold a dozen characters and as many an plot layers in your mind at all times – and how easy it is to overlook smaller details in the interior
of that.
Thanks to the feedback I received in my own group, I was able to identify the “shin busters” in my 1st novel – like once
I had a single character dragging a cervid across the plains, or my heroine’s eyes attending as otherwise
colored between chapters three and eleven. It’s better to find these problems early on before we submit our books to those less forgiving editors and agents.
For shorter works, like stories, articles and essays, the feedback we get from our group lets us cognize how effectively we’re human action our basic ideas. If we can “sell” our argument to everyone in our group, we’ll be that more much likely to sell the piece to a magazine or e-zine editor.
A couple of tips for running your group smoothly: (1) Stick to a time limit for each member’s reading and response time. Once
one person dominates the discussion for too long it can provoke the others’ resentment. (2) Discuss only what members have WRITTEN, not what they PLAN to write. This is a critique, not a cooperative
writing session. We can talk simply about the merits of this idea or that indefinitely, but if nothing is put down on paper then it’s actually simply a fancy form of procrastination. We’re here to help each else with revision, not brainstorming, and to do everyone to stay productive.
If you’re still not confident
simply about the merits of this approach to shining your craft, then consider these two works, now some
blockbuster films, which up
out of a single writer’s group: “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Chronicles of Narnia”.
“The Inklings”, in England, once boasted some
J.R.R. John ronald reuel tolkien and C.S. Lewis amongst its members. Lewis’ space fantasy, which began with “Out of the Silent Planet”, was the result of a gentleman’s bargain he ready-made with Tolkien. And John ronald reuel tolkien acknowledged more than once in his correspondences that he would-be probably ne'er
have finished his own masterpiece if not for Lewis’ encouragement.
Consider that for a moment. “The Lord of the Rings” wouldn’t exist if J.R.R. John ronald reuel tolkien hadn’t belonged to a writer’s group.
Seth Mullins is the author of “Song of an Ferine Land”, a novel of fantasy in lawless frontier territory. Visit Seth at http://authorsden.com/sethtmullins.
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Seth Mullins is the author of "Song of an Ferine Land", a novel of speculative fantasy in lawless frontier territory. His nonfictional prose includes dissertations on the craft of writing, as well as the inner meanings of mythic and fantasy stories.
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