Starting a Writers’ Group
If there is no Writers’ Group in your area, there may be a need for one. With a little careful preparation and planning, you can fulfil that need and enjoy the stimulation of meeting other writers. If you are considering starting a group, the following guidelines may be useful:
1 Find out if there are any writing workshops in your area, when they meet, and their particular areas of interest.
2 Talk to relevant organisations and individuals in order to judge the potential interest in your group.
3 Locate a suitable venue for the workshop. Libraries, arts centres, educational establishments and pubs can all provide comfortable and relatively cheap accommodation.
4 Consider an appropriate meeting time and day as this will have a major effect on the writers the group will attract.
5 Decide whether the workshop is going to be a discussion group or elect an identifiable leader.
6 Decide whether the group should have a specific focus. It is probably best, at this stage, to keep the workshop as broadly based as possible to encourage a good cross fertilisation of ideas.
7 Consider the financial implications of setting up a workshop, including the cost of initial publicity and the meeting room charge. Set this expenditure against income from attendance and subscription.
8 Having established the time, place and subscription charge, publicise the group via community newsletters, a press release to the local press, posters, library notice boards and specific publications from Arts Council bodies. It is also a good idea to organise an event to launch the group. Invite an established local writer to give a reading and run a workshop.
9 Register the group on appropriate mailing lists to keep up to date with what’s happening. Also tap into available information services.
10 Contact neighbouring groups and explore the possibility of setting up joint sessions, poetry and prose swaps.
Finally, if you haven’t already done so, join us at NAWG!