While I’ve been busy writing (nearly up to 15,000 words on the novel, which I am very pleased about) I’ve also been joining various writers’ groups. Two of us are writers who met on Nick Quentin Woolf’s writing retreat and another one from playwright Judith Johnson’s excellent creative writing group at the Idea Store Bow. We meet up informally in East London to critique each others’ work.
I’m happy to say that this has been a very supportive and fun experience, we’re even planning our next meeting in the pub which is bound to make things go with a swing. The format is that we read each others’ work before each session and then take turns giving our opinions, notes on text and character development and anything else that occurs to us.
One thing I’ve missed, though, is being in a book group. I was in a fantastic one a couple of years ago, but it died away as these things so often do, and I hadn’t found a substitute. Recently Judith Johnson emailed me to say she had started a Reading Round group (supported by the Royal Literary Fund) in Whitechapel Idea Store. I joined it after her creative writing group finished and we’ve just started meeting on Mondays.
The concept of a Reading Round group is that a professional writer leads the group reading in the session (usually short fiction or poetry in our group) and it is explored and analysed in quite a focused way, similar to practical criticism. I have to say that it has been very helpful to my own writing to do this close reading in a group again, and it’s a great opportunity if you are either a passionate reader, or a writer.
Find out more about Reading Round Groups