The Writing "Community"

I've never been a joiner. When I was in school I was far too shy to even consider joining any group. Even if I thought one sounded fun, I knew I could never bring myself to join. As I matured I lost some of that timidity, but if I unavoidably find myself among a group of strangers, I still revert to my shy nature. 

When I became a manager I was left with no recourse but to join. Except now I was the one begging others to participate. Few people ever wanted to. And don't get me started on meetings. Meetings are the scourge of corporate life. 99.9% of meetings are entirely worthless. I know, because of the one zillion meetings I've had to attend throughout my career. Process discussions are the worst. One person presents the issue, then four others pepper them with questions, many off-topic. Finally one in the group offers an opinion on how to proceed and is abruptly shot down by three other people, one of whom is intent on regurgitating her off-topic observation. And the meeting dissolves into chaos, with no decisions other than to "meet again". This pattern often continues for months, until the group leader ultimately makes an executive decision on her own, sans input. Which is what should have happened in the first place. But, you know, we want people to be "heard".

So, what does a writing community accomplish? If it's a bitch session, okay, I like bitching as much as the next guy. I sometimes read posts from someone asking how to find a writer's group. From what I can gather, a writer's group consists of people reading something they wrote and then being critiqued by the others. It sounds like one of those process meetings I described. "Well, I think you should..." "I'm confused by your..." and the dreaded, "If I was writing this..." 

Understanding the mechanics of good writing is not an innate talent, except for a very few writing savants. Something as simple as phrasing has to be perfected by trial and error. Word choice can either make a passage soar or land with a thud. Consensus doesn't solve those things; hard work does. Sure, one person might offer a good idea for a particular paragraph, but okay, that's one paragraph. Will I need to run all my others by you, too?

The creative arts are solitary, mostly. I've never been able to co-write a song. When I was writing songs, I needed "alone time" to think things through. And if I had an idea in mind, I didn't need someone else clogging up my brain with suggestions that destroyed what I wanted to say. I needed to work it out myself.

Would a bystander suddenly start offering suggestions to a painter as they stood watching them at the easel? "If I was painting this, I'd emphasize the brush strokes on the water with a touch of white." What? Get the F out of here! Go paint your own picture!

No one can tell you how to write your story. Because then it's their story. Don't get me wrong; I research a lot. When something is nagging at me and I'm not sure how to proceed, I'll search out answers. But don't give me answers to things I'm not asking about! Group member: "I'm torn whether to have my character leave or decide to stick it out a while longer." Critiquer: "Do you really want to make her dress yellow?"

Online communities are different. I can swiftly bypass a topic that doesn't interest me. I'm not stuck in a room with a bunch of people arguing mundane points. But online is generally pretty dull, too. Most questions have been asked a thousand times before and the responses never vary. 

I think sometimes people look for ways to avoid writing. Maybe joining a group convinces them they're doing something when they're really not. But talking about writing isn't writing. There's only one way to improve ~ do it. Make mistakes; learn from them. Experiment. Type out something and delete it if it feels wrong. Or at the very least, find a better way to say it. 

A group isn't going to help me become a better writer. I can help me, though.

I still kind of wish I'd joined that high school photography club, though.