Meeting with Other Writers

One of the pleasures of being a writer is getting to know others who are equally engrossed in putting words in the right order in an imaginative way. It especially helps to have writer friends if those nearest and dearest have no idea what compels us to spend our time this way - have to admit mine are all very understanding and one of my best friends couldn't be more supportive. But I also feel particularly blessed with a host of writing friends and colleagues and greatly value any time spent in discussing writing-related matters.

I was very lucky to find a good writing group many years ago when I was starting out and the various members over the years have proved inspirational and encouraging, several of them becoming close friends. A few of us regularly meet up for coffee or lunch and a chat and we all feel ready to go home and write afterwards. An offshoot of this is that we all belong to the Scottish Association of Writers and get to meet people from all over Scotland at the annual conference each March.

This past week, I had the pleasure of meeting two new writing acquaintances at the Willow Tearooms in Glasgow, along with one writing friend from Edinburgh whom I've known for several years, and it was very motivating hearing how everyone is doing with writing and publishing novels. At the end of this coming week I’ll be out to lunch with three other writing friends and at the beginning of the following week, there’s a Christmas lunch in Glasgow for the online Scottish Writers group I belong to – although we also try to meet up in person a few times a year.

On Tuesday past, we had the writing group’s annual Dinner and Awards at a local Equestrian Centre and, as always, it was a most enjoyable day. We begin with an afternoon meeting, which this year included judging of a Flash Fiction competition (which I was proud to see my daughter win!) and it was followed by the Awards for the 2013/14 session. I was honoured and delighted to win the Betty Munnoch Poetry Award this year. The unique carved ‘book’ contains an individual plaque on the inside cover with each winner’s name over the years, and a copy of the winning poem is put inside. It is named after a very dear friend and wonderful poet who sadly passed away many years ago.

The day ends with our dinner in an adjoining room when we get the chance to socialise along with the eating and drinking! It’s especially good for chatting to newer members, as we might not have the opportunity during or after our weekly meetings. It’s a lovely tradition of our group now and one which we all look forward to each year.

So if anyone is thinking of joining a writing group, either online or at a real venue, or even if you can only meet up with a few writing friends, I’d encourage you to give it a try. Yes, the quality of groups can vary as people are different personalities, but you just might find lasting friendship and unexpected inspiration.

Rosemary

Belonging to a Writing Group

Some of the writing group enjoying garden party

Since I was talking about the RNA in my last post, I thought I should move further back, to first being part of a writing group. That's where it all took off for me as a writer. I was taking those first tentative steps in writing back in the early 90s, and even had a short article published in the Scottish Home & Country Magazine. Then we moved house to a small village, and son and daughter had new schools to get used to, we had the new house to straighten and life took over again.

One evening, the local free newspaper popped through the letterbox. And it was one of those serendipitous moments. I had a quick look through and noticed an advert for a new writing group starting in a nearby small town. It was the only time the advert appeared and, fortunately, I'd kept the details. But I needed to pluck up the courage to go along to that first meeting where I knew not a single soul. Maybe it helped slightly that I'd had one little piece of publication, so I didn't feel a complete fraud!

But I needn't have worried. A couple of people knew each other but there were a few new writers like me. More importantly, they had managed to get funding for a tutor to get us started over the first several weeks, and Sheila happened to be the first person I met as I went through the community centre doors that day. Not only did our experienced tutor and writer start us off the right way, but she stayed in the group for many years and is still one of my dear writing friends. She was also a wonderful mentor in those early days when I was struggling to find my writing voice.

But that was only the beginning. Our writing group eventually became affiliated to the Scottish Association of Writers which encompasses writing groups from all over Scotland. The SAW has an annual conference each March, where members from all the writing groups get together for a wonderful weekend of talks, seminars, competition adjudications and fun. There are many competitions covering all kinds of writing - members enter them months before the conference and on the Friday evening/Saturday morning the results are announced by each adjudicator, who also gives a short resume of the competition entries and reasons for choosing the winners. The lovely awards are given out on the Saturday evening.

Anyway, back to the 1990s. Since we were now SAW members, I decided to go to my first conference at Crieff Hydro (it's moved to other hotels since then). I've always been a last minute writer needing deadlines, and this was no exception. But I managed to enter a couple of competitions, including my very first woman's short story. The lovely, late Ian Sommerville of My Weekly was the adjudicator. We all sat through each competition result with various levels of excitement. I was just so glad to be in amongst this huge group of real writers for the very first time.

Then came a defining moment in my writing career. I won the Woman's Short Story competition! To say I was shocked doesn't come close to the disbelief with which I sat there. When Ian went on to rave about the story and told everyone he was buying it for the magazine, I couldn't come back down to earth. I did, however, have to read it out to the whole audience from the stage. Fortunately, my voice held out and I didn't cry at the end, although I almost did.

I'd love to say that I suddenly became a great success and my writing career took off in a big way. But I was still playing at being a writer in those days and it had to take second or third place behind family, work and OU studies. But it did start me on my way. And the most important part of all this is that I stayed a member of my writing group from that day until now. I've gone on to write lots of published short stories, articles, children's stories, poetry and now novels. I've given lots of talks to other writers on market research, I've adjudicated competitions and I've served as president and secretary of the writing group.

Would I be at this stage today without my encouraging, supportive writing group? Probably not. For that was where I learned the craft of writing, heard professional writers share their knowledge, took part in competitions and workshops and met so many other wonderful writers. When I stand on the SAW stage next March as an adjudicator of a short story competition, I shall be remembering that it all happened because of walking in the door of that writing group all those years ago.

We end our sessions with a wonderful garden party at one of our members' homes, where we all take different food for the buffet lunch. It's a measure of the social aspect to our friendly group. I do encourage other writers to find a good, supportive local writing group. It might be the best decision you ever make!

Rosemary