My writing groups are back!! It’s been three long months and finally, tomorrow, I get to return to the joy of writing with others.
My year won’t be as jam-packed as 2024. Last year, through the Peter Cowan Writers Centre (pictured), I had Saturday groups on Weekends 1 (Creative Writing),3 (Poetry) and 4 (The Short Storyists). Each group was very different. During Creative Writing sessions, we listened to an explanation of a style and then did a creative exercise. Sometimes people shared (okay, yes, I shared a lot) but mostly it was about having a go in different styles.
Poetry started off similarly (try something new) but in the second hour it changed into something I loved. Everyone brought a poem and copies to share, then read their work to the gathered others who were following along on their copies. Then the fun began. Everyone gave feedback, either verbally or in writing on the page. It’s one thing to perform a poem and quite another to receive responses on that reading. Each person had a chance to present, which was wonderful. Some poets were sure and some shy but that made no difference to the experience of enjoying someone else’s writing.
The Short Storyists group, AKA The Shorty’s, was very different to the other two. Each writer had a partner, but they didn’t write the same story. Each month, on the first Saturday, the paired writers shared a story of up to 4000 words with their partner and the other two writers in their ‘pod’. On Weekend 3, everyone returned their feedback to the two writers and on the fourth Saturday we met in person to go over everything and learn a new concept. The following month, the other two writers submitted their work and the cycle started again.
It sounds complicated, but it just meant one month you wrote a story and got feedback from three people while giving feedback to one. The next month you didn’t submit but you got two stories to critique – and, if you were smart, you’d already started your next submission. The group helped its members follow deadlines, write longer stories than we might have otherwise, and give and receive feedback. Most competitions don’t provide feedback so it’s hard to know what you could have improved, or whether your work was great but simply wasn’t what the judges were looking for. Even learning that by hanging out with other writers whose work you admire is valuable.
The final group I attended last year was The Secrets of Storytelling. It’s on again this year, and it’s great, but most people only sit through the course once. It teaches the structure and in-depth understanding of story you need to know to develop writing that holds its own. I wouldn’t have known what my stories were missing without the insight of the moderator, Andrew Levett.
The course ran for 36 weeks on Sunday afternoons, meaning on Weekends 1,3 and 4, I was at the Peter Cowan Writer’s Centre twice. I loved being there and I loved my year of total absorption in writing and meeting others who write but by the end of the year, I was also very tired. I’m not sure I’d have coped with working and writing and attending extra workshops and book launches if I hadn’t had Mondays off to recover.
This year I have a lighter load. No Secrets of Storytelling (which this year is a Saturday afternoon), and no Creative Writing as it isn’t going back until later in the year. I get to start with poetry, which will be a wonderful return to a year of sharing work with others. I haven’t written anything to share yet, but that’s okay – at the time of writing this post, I still have 26 hours to get inspired.
Away from the Centre, I’ve been invited to hold a guest blogger slot on an Australasian site and added to the stable of writers for a creative collaboration with artists with disability later in the year. I’m really looking forward to both.
I am loving this life of creativity and sharing words and work with others. Putting stuff out there is one thing, doing it together quite another.
2025, here we go!
A Glorious Mess 