Seven Questions to Consider Before Starting a Writing Group (that Will Make it Work!)
It is well proven that writing groups work. They help increase participants’ productivity, decrease their anxiety about writing, and allow them to build meaningful connections with other participants. In short, they can make a really positive difference in your writing life.
But just because writing groups work doesn’t mean it is easy to start or maintain them. It’s quite common for groups like this to fizzle out over time (sometimes quite rapidly). And it’s not uncommon to join a group that you soon feel isn’t helping you to get writing done in the way you had hoped. So in this post, I suggest important questions to consider before launching your group. Working your way through them thoughtfully will help you to form a group that has a good chance of accomplishing your goals and enduring into the future.
If you have existing writing groups that you can join – that’s great! Then you don’t have to start one! But thinking through these questions before leaping into one will help you evaluate whether this particular group is right for you. Finally, if you are already in a writing group (hooray!), this post will give you some ideas for how you might make it work even better for you.
1
What are your goals for the group? Before you jump into the nitty gritty of getting a writing group off the ground, spend some time reflecting on why you want to be part of one. Are you looking for the accountability they can provide through public goal setting and working in community? Or are you feeling like a writing group would be a useful way to get feedback on your work? Or perhaps working in community with others is most important to you? Of course your goals may be a combination of the three.
If you already have other people in mind with whom you are planning to form the group, be sure to incorporate them in this conversation. Defining your goals clearly can help you to answer the next question.
2
How do you want your group to be structured? There are two main types of writing groups: those where participants meet to write together and those where they meet to exchange feedback on writing (generally a piece of work that someone has circulated in advance). How you answered the above questions should help guide you towards which kind of group would be best for you. If you are looking for accountability and help just getting writing done, the first option is probably best. If you want feedback, look to the second model. If one of the things you hope to build is community, this could happen in either model, but you might add on some time to chat or to discuss writing and other issues more generally.
You can also certainly combine models. For example, you could meet and spend an hour exchanging feedback on someone’s work and then write quietly together for an hour or two. Just be sure that participants are willing to put in the time that this may take.
3
How do you want to find group members? There are several questions to consider in relation to this question. First, do you want your group to be invitation only or more open? The former might involve asking several of your academic friends and colleagues to take part. This can be nice because you can select people who you like and who you think will be devoted to the group. A more open group might be something that you advertise to colleagues more broadly, say your department or division or a scholarly group you are part of. This can have the advantage of potentially attracting more people, though before you open your group up reflect on whether you’d be comfortable working with anyone on the potential list.
Since exchanging feedback on writing can be a sensitive matter, if this is going to be part of your group's activities you might want to consider doing this with people who you know, especially people who you know would provide useful, constructive feedback.
4
Who will you ask to be part of your group? Once you have a sense of how you will invite members, think about who you might want these people to be. If you are trying to build community and foster a supportive environment, it might be nice to include scholars at a similar career stage. If you are going to be exchanging work, you might want to ensure that members’ fields are at least tangentially related so that they can give meaningful feedback. For writing exchanges, experts suggest between two and five people can be a good number. More can work if you are primarily writing together and can have the advantage that it will still feel like a group even if some people can’t make it on any given day. Perhaps most importantly, try and find people who are committed and responsible since either kind of group can fall apart if people stop attending or doing the work.
5
Who will be in charge of the group? Will this be you or will the duties be shared between members? Is there possibly a center at your school that might be willing to take this on (perhaps the writing center or a center for teaching and learning)? Note that while it may sound easy, organizing a group like this can be a lot of work since it involves scheduling meetings, answering members’ questions, identifying meeting places, and managing other general logistics. So if you decide to take this on yourself, be sure you have the time to do it!
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How will other logistics work? Of course, you need to decide where your group will meet. Although many writing groups meet in-person, they also work well on Zoom. Meeting online can open your group up to people outside of your geographical area. If you are going to meet in person and are employed by a university, you might reserve a room there for your meetings. But there are plenty of other public spaces that could work well, including coffee shops, libraries, and restaurants. Just be sure that the place matches the group’s needs (Can you hear if you’re going to be talking together? Is it relatively private if you are exchanging feedback?).
You’ll also need to determine the schedule and meeting length. This will likely vary depending on the focus of your group (quiet writing time vs. discussions of members’ work). It saves time on scheduling if you can establish a standing meeting time (Fridays from 9 a.m. to 11. a.m. or the second and fourth Monday of every month).
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What are the ground rules? These will vary based on your goals for the group, but be sure to pay attention to them. For example, if you are going to be exchanging writing with people, you will want to agree on what feedback might look like. This might involve agreeing to keep feedback constructive and supportive, thus avoiding frustrating group members (here are some tips on how to accomplish that). You might also ask the author to share concerns about the work when they send it so that feedback can be useful to them at their particular stage in the project. Consider whether you just want to talk through feedback or if you’d like group members to provide written feedback as well. Finally, you’ll want to decide how far in advance to circulate work to give everyone enough time to engage with it.
If you are primarily meeting to write together, how strict do you want to be about quiet writing time? Do you want group members to save questions for breaks or to raise them during writing time? (Note that the latter risks dramatically reducing your time to write, but if your goal is to support each other’s work, that approach could be useful as long as everyone is on board with it.) Are there things you want to do to foster sharing experiences or help boost productivity? Perhaps you might set goals publicly for each writing session by sharing them verbally or writing them on a post-it that you stick in the middle of the table. Or maybe you want to take turns starting the meeting with some reflections on strategies that have been helpful for you in getting writing done. Having a clear sense of what will happen at meetings not only helps them run smoothly, but it ensures participants agree on meeting structure up front.
I firmly believe that writing groups are extremely valuable, especially if you take the time to set up a group in a thoughtful way. Be sure that participants either weigh in on the answers to the above questions or agree to the framework of the group that you have established. This will help ensure the longevity of your group and give it the best chance of being helpful to all those involved. I hope that the above advice helps you do that!
And if you’d rather not do this work, I do offer occasional writing groups. You can learn more here or reach out to me directly if you have questions.
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