Are Any of You in IRL Writer’s Groups?

Something has come over me recently. I don’t know why now, of all times, but it has. I’ve been thinking about writer’s groups. Writing is a highly solitary endeavor most of the time, as you all know. I guess I’m yearning for some camaraderie, and having people willing and able to ready work and offer helpful feedback.

I’ve been interested in writing groups going back several years, when I started reading Chuck Palahniuk’s essays on writing. He mentioned several times how much being in a writer’s group helped him hone his skills. He also described a certain freedom among those in the group, knowing they were all like minded and could write about anything under the sun, no matter how disturbing, violent, or unsettling the content may be.

That’s where I foresee problems with the existing writer’s groups in my area. Now I’ll admit full well that I could be wrong, but looking at the existing writer’s group in my town I see a lot of self published authors who are fairly old and write things like religious stories and historical fiction set here in my home state. To quote a former coworker, I think the kinds of stories I write would go over with that group like a fart in church.

So, I’ve been thinking of starting my own—if there’s sufficient interest, that is. I’d like to have plenty of genre writers, and while newbies are always welcome, I’d love to have some more experienced writers (or even novice writers who are voracious readers) who could offer meaningful critiques. That’s something I found lacking with online writer’s groups.

I joined a few groups online back in the day, by which I mean ten or so years ago, and they weren’t a very pleasant experience. Nearly all the feedback received was either thinly veiled insults that I suppose made the person offering them feel better about themselves, or somewhat helpful feedback from people who seemed perpetually exasperated, as if they just could not be bothered to read and critique someone’s work (which made me wonder why they were in the group to begin with).

Even a critique free group would be nice. A writer’s support group, if you will. Going back to my last post about following/friending fellow writers on social media, it’s just reassuring that they’re out there. But now I want that in real life.

So I’m curious if any of you have been in IRL writer’s groups and what your experience was like. I’ve heard comments from both sides, so it seems like it could go either way. It almost seems like getting into a good writer’s group is like catching lightning in a bottle: it could very well be a train wreck, but if you catch the lightning, something magical happens.