Creative writing groups- anyone set one up?

[pinkfrocks]

Just wondering.
All of them around where I live are too far away.
I like the idea of moral support but am a bit concerned about ending up with a group of elderly retired people when I'd like to be with younger people ( ie mid 30s-50s.)

I have the idea of a fortnightly or monthly meeting in a cafe where people can turn up and chat and get moral support and where it could run without me always hosting it if I couldn't at times.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

No but I'm thinking about it.
I've just moved into a new area where there used to be one but it's either folded or gone underground.
I think who comes will depend a lot on when and where it is. The one in my town seems to have been in the afternoon, but timed to coincide with school pick-up, so I doubt they'll have got either young working people or parents

[englishmummyinwales]

I haven't set one up, but thought I'd let you know that I joined one in September and like you expected everyone else to be 65+. In fact, despite it being on a Thursday morning, the age range is quite varied - one week we ranged from 14-92! And at least half were not of retirement age.

If you ran one in the evening, you're probably even more likely to get a younger crowd.

Ours is fortnightly in the local library, but there's another one in a nearby town which takes place monthly in a pub. Unfortunately it's at 6.30 and DH isn't home by then so I can't make it. I've really enjoyed mine, so if you can face being the central organiser then I'd recommend it.

[pinkfrocks]

Would you have a theme for each session or a free for all? I suppose what makes me cringe is the thought of listening to people reading out their writing and everyone being too shy or kind to critique it honestly!

[englishmummyinwales]

We have a theme each week, I think that helps concentrate the mind. You could set up a rota for that if you don't want responsibility for coming up with each one? However we are also able to read out something else if there's time and we want some feedback.

Everyone being nice is a bit of an issue though - sometimes I'd like someone to go through mine with a red pen rather than just offer a small constructive comment. But it is very hard face to face - goes against my instinctive nature to try and be nice.

[schmalex]

I run a critique group, but we all met on a course so knew each other beforehand. We read and comment on our work in progress.
You can get around the overly nice comments by giving a framework for feedback - either people have to give one positive and something to be improved, or you can give some kind of list of things to consider like point of view, character motivation, etc.

[BigPawsBrown]

I would love to set one up. I've been to quite a few in my area andthey are mostly full of people who are never going to get published and if you enjoy as a hobby and who do not really want to improve the writing will be criticised. I have an agent and looking for other writers going through the process (submission arghhhh) but am really yet to find any. My day job means I can't really commit to once a week and certainly not running something but perhaps I can set up a critique group in the New Year

[BigPawsBrown]

Sorry for the garbled. Used Siri