Lead

How I came to lead writing groups

In my search for a supportive writing community, I encountered several “read and critique” writing groups, set up one of two ways:

· Writers distributed manuscript copies to the group to read and comment on by the next meeting, and we all left with 80-100 pages of homework.

· Writers read entire manuscripts aloud before the group, and the group critiqued what they heard on the spot.

Some groups were well-moderated; others weren’t moderated at all, making it easy for one or two people to monopolize meeting time. Discussion often lacked substance, and my sense was that most people—including me!—didn’t really understand how to provide useful feedback. At the same time, I was struggling with writer’s block and didn’t always have a manuscript to share. I needed something to help me loosen up and start writing again.

During that time, I attended a workshop led by a writer I admired, Deena Metzger, in western Massachusetts. At the breakfast table at my B&B I met a woman who’d once been Deena’s student in California and now lived in nearby Amherst. I shared my difficulty in finding a writing community, and she told me she wrote in an Amherst-style writing group.

“What’s that?” I asked, and she directed me to Writing Alone and With Others, by Amherst Writers and Artists founder Pat Schneider. After devouring Pat’s book, I contacted AWA to see if it had any groups in Indiana. The answer was, “Unfortunately, no,” but the staff easily convinced me I could remedy that situation myself. I signed up for leader training the following May and by summer had two groups of my own meeting.

Today, writing with others and helping them open up new rooms within themselves shares center stage in my life with my own writing.