Thursday, January 29, 2009

On My Own

I'm back to writing on my own again.

The second writing group I joined has now disintegrated. Perhaps this means I will feel freer to write about the people in the writing group. Usually, I came away from writing group with the urge to write about my fellow writing groupies, but am restrained by a combination of niceness and fear; fear that they may come to this blog and read my mean thoughts about them.

They are all very nice people; they are just full of neuroses or loneliness or, in the case of one incandescent individual, complete madness (seriously, he was involuntarily admitted to psychiatric hospital).

As I am, I suppose (full of neuroses and/or loneliness). Although I'm pretty sure I'm not certifiable.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've not met many writers but the ones i have, have been very together. Maybe they went through some tough times, breakdowns, psychosis - but I suppose in order to get a whole book written they're very with it.

I think a lot of people start writing for therapeutic reasons.
Though I know what you mean.
I was v. lucky and the first writing group i found (and only writing group) was full of like minded people. No one who had the, better off seeing a counselor vibe.
I've not been fortunate in finding another group. Where I live its mainly retirees who write. Usually at the stage where they want to write down their life story for grand kids or they set topics such as, "what's your favourite colour".
;)

I have a friend who was able to write her first novel with the help of her writing group and can't do without them.
Do you find having a group helps you with your writing?

Oanh said...

Ha! A topic such as "what's your favourite colour" would drive me crazy.

I do find being in a writing group helps. I need all the motivation I can get...

Anonymous said...

I think if the economy completely crashes and I have no job, I might run writing workshops in my community with less lame-o topics. Just because you're aspiring or doing it as a hobby, doesn't mean you have to be subjected to kindy topics.

I also went to a workshop with more serious writers - it was like attending a bad high school poetry lesson....and I found out a little too much about people I hardly knew. POetry nights are also fun in that "oh my god you need to get some pro help!" way.

I think groups are great for motivation. I belonged to one when I was o/s that was really fun. We had great conversations, honest critiques, good food and stimulating conversation. I'm part of their group via email but it's not the same.

I had one skype session but it just wasn't the same :I

I'm sure you'll find a better one. After all your'e in a big exciting literary city...or at least literate city.
;)

Tseen Khoo said...

I keep thinking that joining a writing group would be good for producing stuff regularly (even if it went nowhere, publication-wise), then realise that it would just be another body of people I'd be wary of disappointing, or feel guilty about not engaging with enough...! It's a bit like the way I love the idea of being in a savvy, supportive book-group, but know that I'd just flog myself all the time about the books I haven't read yet. ;)

Oanh said...

scp -

I have found someone with my name publishing awful sappy teenage poetry on the web. I hope no one thinks it's me...

I like your writer's workshop idea!

I'm not in London - where I am is less literary, I think. I could start a group, but I'm reluctant to organise things over here. I'm reluctant to get bogged down in the administration.

Tseen -

I have discovered I am reasonably immune to guilt in my social interactions. I guess I have so much guilt about my family, I have none left over for the rest of the world.

I did need the writing group to spur me to write, and having a deadline every couple of weeks was also useful. Even so, I had not always produced for every meeting - work just kept getting in the way.

You would have liked the book group I was a part of in BrisVegas (excepting that we were all friends from law school trying to keep a structured way of keeping in touch). Only very rarely had more than two members of the group actually read the book of the month. And our lunches were themed to the book and got increasinly extravagant. Oh, I miss those lovely women. Have not found a book group here, either, but I have not tried too hard.

 
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.