In today’s Publetariat Dispatch, author and consultant Joanna Penn offers advice on how to find a writer’s group that’s a fit.

Writer’s groups can be quite difficult because sometimes there is more talking than writing. Maybe that’s what you want, but I have been struggling to find a place to write for a while now. When I talked to Dan Sawyer a while back on prolific writing, he mentioned his writing partner Gail, and I felt the need to find something similar. Last week I found the perfect writer’s group and I talk about it below.

The writing group I went to has rules: No talking, just writing, for 2 hours. Then you’re free to socialize. I arrived at the Battersea pub at 6.30pm after work, ready to write, but also jaded from a full day’s work. I was knackered and if I had gone home, it would have been dinner, reading and bed. But there were 4 other writers there and they were diligently at it, so I opened my netbook and started to write. Two hours later I had 2000 words and a new scene for Prophecy, my next novel. Brilliant!I will be going back next week, ready to write again. The positive peer pressure was just what I needed.

So to find the right writer’s group for you – decide what you want to get out of it, and what you are willing to put in. I don’t want to talk at the moment, I want to write. I’m sure I will need a critique group for the next phase of the edits, but right now, it’s first draft which means writing.

Are you in a writer’s group? What does it provide for you?
What do you recommend for others?

PS. This is the first video from my garden in London. It’s under a flight path so it is a little noisy – and I got the camera angle wrong – I do have a body! Let me know what you think. Do you like my videos?

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.