The title of the post includes the words “networking” and “drinking,” quick– will I be discussing lawyering or noveling??

If you guessed noveling, you’re correct!  If you guessed lawyering, it’s OK, I would have too.  Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was extremely flattered and delighted when some people in my writing class e-mailed to see if I wanted to get together monthly to critique each other’s work.  Essentially, the meetings would be a continuation of the class, except I suspect that alcohol may be involved this time.

With this invitation to the writing group, I had an epiphany: no matter what field you’re in, or what aspirations you have, networking is a key component.  It simply cannot be escaped.  I initially joined the creative writing class to hone my skills, but I’ve grown to realize that the most valuable thing I may take from it are the relationships I’ve made.  The last day of class our teacher told us that his writing group had been formed from the members of a class he had taken at the Writer’s Center, and that it was still going strong—that class was 8 years ago! Since then, he has published several short stories and is now working on his novel.

The people in my class/group range in age, gender, writing genre, and profession, and I really don’t know if I would have ever met most of them in another context; however, the reality is that we end up drawing on some very personal experiences when sharing our short stories.  For that reason, I think we all have learned a lot about each other in a short period of time.  For me, the  critique of one my  stories felt like a group therapy session! The personal aspect of it is good though because I believe that for the group to be successful, its members will have to be able to trust one another.  Is anyone out there in a writing group?  How does it work? Holllerrr