Hi Lit Service and all of its participants!
A few months ago, I decided I desperately needed a writing group. Or, rather, I decided that forever ago, and it was only a few months past that I decided to do something about it. I created a group through MeetUp that focused on A) women supporting women through writing and B) sci-fi, horror, and fantasy genres.
I'm happy to say that the group has flourished. With 40 online members and regular attendance of about 7-8 people each week, I am really pleased with how the attendees have come together.
However, I now have to figure out how to best lead the group. We have writers who are in very different points of the process - for those who attend each week, we have three writers brainstorming/outlining, two working on first drafts, and I am looking for critiques of my third draft. After our last session, we decided to do monthly goal check-ins. I'm currently working on some questions to help my group craft their goals, and on the last meetup of each month we will check in on our progress.
My questions are: How do I help my group make meaningful progress toward their writing? Our group currently is a process/brainstorming/question/vent-sesh with one hour dedicated heads-down writing time. How can I make that time more valuable for them? How do I (selfishly) lead them to critiques?
I value my group and want to make it worthwhile for everyone involved. Any guidance on how to best lead fellow writers would be much appreciated!
It's probably important to divide people based on commitment level and genre! Smaller groups are a lot easier to manage than big ones too--like five people. Let people set rules about how much they want to read in those smaller groups?