4 Ways To Organize A Successful Writing Group

Have you ever been excited to join an activity, only to realize after a month or two that you were the only one interested in actually participating in it?

Writers can often struggle to be involved in successful writing groups for this exact reason. The group might start out with lofty aspirations of regularly critiquing each other’s work and holding each other accountable to write regularly. But over the next few weeks, participation slowly declines until there are only one or two people still interested.

The fading writing group is an all too common problem. So how can you build and maintain a successful writing group that will nourish its members for the long haul?

With these four steps, writers can organize a successful writing group that promotes lasting participation.

But first…

What is a writing group and why should you be involved in one?

Writing is often considered a lonely activity, and to a point, it is.  No one else can write your words for you.

But feedback as a writer is essential.

You need outside eyes on your work to show you where you might be going off track, what’s missing, things you haven’t explained, parts of your writing that are both weak and strong, and more.

Plus, it’s a really good way to gauge people’s interest in your work and get excited about their excitement!

An effective writing group is where writers who want feedback and support get together regularly to read and discuss each other’s work.

You can encourage each other through the difficult times, keep each other accountable, and ultimately refine your writing process.  Writing should not be a lonely activity.

However, it can be challenging to keep people interested and committed to a writing group.  People get busy, they can take more than they give, and it can end up falling apart quickly.

So, how can you organize a successful writing group?

First, consider appointing a writing group leader.

If your group is small (only three or four people), you may not need a leader because you can make every decision by simply discussing it until you agree.

But with ten or fifteen people, you still need someone to say, “Alright, let’s do this!”  once you reach a consensus. And, if you don’t reach a consensus, you need someone to break the stalemate. In these cases, having a leader makes the group run more smoothly.

Appointing a group leader also gives someone the authority to organize weekly meetings and the permission to nudge the group back on track if necessary. Group leaders keep things moving forward.

Being a group leader might sound scary, but you don’t have to be anyone “special” to be a good group leader. You just have to understand your job and do it reliably. You can even pass on the leadership responsibilities to new people every month if you’d like.

Second, make sure the commitment required isn’t too high.

It’s easy to have big dreams of exchanging thousands of words every week and getting lots and lots of feedback. But this isn’t reasonable for most people with busy schedules. Even if it seems exciting to you now, in a few weeks, it might not seem like such a good idea.

A group is more likely to last if it remains active long enough for participation to become a habit. So, set your group up for success by making the commitment reasonable. This way, you’re more likely to get consistent participation.

What’s a reasonable commitment? That all depends on your group members. I’d recommend suggesting a smaller commitment than you think you need, and increasing it only if people are successful with the smaller amount.

For some people, they might only have time for a brief check-in every week. That’s totally fine. You should create (or join) a group that serves your needs.

Third, give the group a theme and a clear, recurring structure.

Recurring structure lets people plan ahead. When they know what they’re getting into, people are more likely to join and stay in a group. But if you’re vague about what the group will entail, people are going to be hesitant to commit.

A recurring structure also avoids the problem of having nothing to talk about after a while. It regularly refreshes the group with a new discussion topic or event.

People may still get off-topic, or start their own discussions. That’s okay, and even healthy, as long as everyone else in the group is okay with it. Regular structure should provide a scaffold on which other discussions can build.

See below for some weekly structure ideas. And share in the comments which structures have worked well for you!

Fourth, to keep a group going, you will need to keep recruiting new participants.

Groups exist to be useful to their participants. If someone isn’t finding the group useful anymore, it’s okay for them to leave.

Sometimes, people get busy. Other times, people have learned what they needed to learn from the group. So, except in very rare cases, you’ll eventually need to open your doors and recruit new people.

This may happen naturally when people invite their friends. Or, you may have to advertise the group to wider audiences again.

That’s just the natural flow of groups. Go into them expecting consistency, but also change.

5 Weekly Group Structure Ideas

1. Critique Group, Small

Good for a small group of people. Each week on the same day, everyone:

• Submits some amount of their own writing (for example: 1000 words)
• Reads everyone else’s submission and, by the next week, gives feedback either:
  • As a summary, which will encourage general comments
  • OR in the document itself (like on Google Docs), which will encourage text-level comments

2. Critique Group, Large

Good for a large group of people. Each week on the same day:

• Up to four people submit some amount of their own writing (for example 1000 words)
• Everyone in the group gives feedback on as many submissions as they have time for that week, either:
  • As a summary, which will encourage general comments
  • OR in the document itself (like on Google Docs), which will encourage text-level comments
• The group leader asks for volunteers to submit next week and decides in a fair manner who gets to submit

3. Prayer Group

Each week on the same day, the group leader asks everyone for:

• The highlight of their week and the low point of their week
• A prayer request and a praise
• Group members can either pray for everyone or pray for the person that commented before them.

4. Writing Accountability Group

Each week on the same day, the group leader asks everyone:

• Did you meet your writing goal last week?
• If not, why not? Is there something you can do better next time? (Discourage the “try harder” answer because it’s too vague!)
• Whether or not you met your goal, what are you proud of accomplishing in your writing?
• What is your goal for the next week?

5. Writing Support Group

Each month on the same day, the group leader asks everyone for:

• One success and one struggle in their writing during the last month
• One thing they learned about writing
• One question they have or something they’d like to learn more about (other group members can answer, but they don’t have to)

Forming A Healthy Writing Community

Don’t feel like you need to just choose one of the above formats. You may discover that mixing a couple of them together (like the accountability and writing support group options) might be the best fit for your group. The important thing is that you start off on the same page about what your group is going to look like and communicate that effectively to your members.

Writing doesn’t need to be a lonely activity. In fact, many of the great writers of the 20^th century (people like G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, and J.R.R. Tolkien) gained essential skills through the writing groups they participated in at the time. And many modern authors participate regularly in writing groups, too!

If you’re having a hard time finding fellow writers near you, you may want to check out the Young Writer’s Workshop, our online learning community for young Christian writers in their teens and early twenties. We host accountability and critique groups within the program so that serious young writers can get support from other writers like them.

You can also join free writing groups on social media that are already organized and active!

Whatever path you take, know that it’s possible to form a successful writing group that doesn’t slowly peter out. All you need is the right people and the right strategies.

Pair those together, and you may be surprised by how beneficial that group can be to your writing life.

Writing groups is often the first step to finding beta readers for your work. Check out this free guide to find great beta readers!