Writer's write

My "everything else" group (read and find out why)

The lifestyle of a writer involves hours of solitary confinement. To the computer, that is. Self-discipline and dedication are two essentials if authors want to get the work done. But, let's face it; writer's write. We write because we love it. We're in love with it. Passionately. Writing is fulfillment, satisfaction, orgasmic. Okay, I'm going a little overboard here, but you get the gist; writing is innate to writers.

When a group of writers gets together to share in their passion, they form intimate relationships. After all, we would not bare our souls to just anyone. And since writing is so personal, it is often difficult to find a group of colleagues that gels.

I am very fortunate to have two such groups; poetry and everything else.

My poetry group, which we call the Baker's Dozen, met online over at Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. Thirteen of us (twelve women and one man) from all over the world formed a private group on Facebook so that we could share our poems on a deeper level. It was hard for us to find one another amongst the swarm of poets participating in the streets of Poetic Asides. We decided to write poems daily and share them; sometimes critiquing, sometimes not. We grew into a group of friends and wound up revealing facets of our personal lives with each other; our acceptances, rejections, accolades, struggles, childhood scars, celebrations, and even death.

Since the formation of Baker's Dozen (BD) several years ago, a few members have changed directions and left the group, but we have continued to strive for keeping true to our thirteen-member name. We still share our love of poetry, submission information and personal support as often as possible. I love my BD friends.

My everything else group is comprised of writers who live in my area and met through the Golden Triangle Writer's Guild. We represent a wide array of style, personality and genre. We have developed and grown over the years just like BD. A core group of us initially met each month to critique and share. As we all know, life happens. Family obligations, life challenges and death have changed our group. But those of us who still meet (and a few new ones) share the common love and need to write. Fiction, nonfiction, self-published or traditional, we have formed a strong bond because of our passion. Now we cherish the time we can get together outside the guild.

Recently, my everything else group met for an all-day writer's retreat. This meeting was extra special to me because we were able to meet at one of the schools where I once taught dyslexia. Even though it had been nine years since I worked there, I felt write right at home. The four of us who made it to the retreat were able to plan, share, write and critique for seven hours. Sheer luxury!

Time really does fly when you're having fun. And writing IS fun. Writer's have fun even though they are alone much of the time. Writer's write. So should you.