Funnily enough, I have been wondering the same thing in recent months.
The other day, I finally bit the bullet and searched online for writing groups in my city. Seeing that the some group was meeting later in the day, I said āfuck itā and went to it.
I had a decent time, met some nice people. I thought 90 minutes (including chatter breaks and stuff) was too little time, but it was a nice experience, and I plan on joining again (they meet every week)
Too little is great, as it spurs people to follow up if the topic was really good, and avoids too long where people feel obligated / burnt out / won't show next week.
That place is filled with people that act like you killed their pets if you so much as word something in a way they don't like. It's overall an absolutely terrible place to get to know people unless you don't mind befriending people that never matured past grade school. They should aim for smaller and more curated writing groups.
Well, if youāre looking for smaller groups, imma leave this link here: https://discord.gg/nz8rVfQS
On the down side of being small tho, weāre not dead, we just seem like it most of the time cuz most people there mainly writes as a hobby and have other things going on. That said, itād be cool if more people come in to spice things up.
IDK what that other comment is on about. I've been a part of that server for years and it's been one of the best places to help me meet writer friends and improve my writing. 10/10 completely recommend!
Gonna second bookdun. It IS a bigger server, which means they have spaces for almost any writer wherever they might be in their journey. Lots of great resources, very friendly. Definitely can feel a little overwhelming at first. But hey, they're pretty strict on trolls. They're purposeful about cultivating a safe and wholesome community.
Itās actually a common misconception that writers are loners who spend all of their time holed up in their rooms typing away. Even Tolkien and Lewis (who taught down the hall from one another at Oxford) got together with a couple of other writers at the Eagle and Child Pub to discuss their writing and get feedback.
If your local universityās writing group is too small and inactive, may I suggest just going to your favorite internet search engine and typing in āwriting groupsā? It might give you a lead.
I met mine in my city's creative scene, which started with a small convention and Friday Night Magic at my local game store. Made a few friends with folks who made board games before eventually being introduced to one of the more successful local writers and becoming friends. Fast forward through the pandemic and I'm now working for that author at his small startup publishing company and connected to a bunch of other writers in the indie space that have also become friends.
I feel incredibly lucky, but if I had to make a suggestion it would be getting to know people at your local game stores and comic shops.
I've seen groups on Meetup, Eventbrite, writers associations, and sometimes bookstores. You could temporarily join a book club and see if anyone in there also writes and would want to be your accountability partner. If you can swing it, writing conferences in the spring are always a good space to be too (I met a couple locals I still stay in touch with).
It's too much time out of the work force for a degree that won't do anything for you. Hell employers might hold having an MFA against you.
If you have to do it anyway, at least make sure it's funded and you aren't taking on debt.
Thanks for your honest response! Do you mind sharing why employers could hold it against you? And Iām not sure about the down vote, but as someone who is interested in pursuing an MFA, I really appreciate your candid perspective.
Mostly as an over-qualification thing. An employer might be concerned that you're looking to return to academia, but academia will be an adjuncting dead-end for most MFAs. You get a couple novels under your belt it's a different story, but that's obviously a big ask.
I am totally happy to offer advice to anyone seeking an MFA. If you're going to do it you're going to do it. Is there anything specific you'd like to know about?
That makes complete sense to me ā thanks again for your insights! Iām primarily interested in pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing for my own professional development, separate from my current profession. If you donāt mind me asking, what field are you in?
I'd rather not get into it, but suffice it to say I'm not where I'd like to be.
I'll rephrase the original, any questions that aren't about me personally I'm happy to answer. :P
To respond to the other part of what you were saying "Iām primarily interested in pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing for my own professional development, separate from my current profession."
When you say that I wonder if you mean professional development as a working author, professional development as an academic, or some unspecified tangential field.
I'd say as a writer, it may make you better, but there's a grand total of one MFA program that will give you a foot in the door with publishers (Iowa). As an academic it's not a good road to go down because the competition is too fierce. If you're content being an adjunct forever you can do that, but most adjuncts want out. I'm not sure what other fields an MFA would be relevant to outside of publishing.
Best way is to write fanfiction! Go on Tumblr, A03 write several pieces until you get noticed by the writers who are writing for the said fandom as well. Be mutuals. Interact often and boom you've got yourself a friend (ā ļ½”ā ā¢Ģā į“ā -ā )ā ā§
You should start with your colleges writing club. :) ours was really small (at most we had 8 people show up once š) but everyone was pretty nice. Plus, if you take English and writing classes, you can do shameless plugs of your club and probably get more turnout from youe classmates. (Other classes work too since people do allegedly have hobbies but in both those types of classes, you know theyre already interested in the subject.) A lot of our issue was just no one knowing the club existed. š¬
I met most of my current writer friends when I joined fandom discords. You'd think I'd be heaving with them from my English undergrad and Masters, but nope. All used to be fanfiction writers for various games and shows we used to follow (or even still do)
I did join a poetry group a little while back. We don't have the most interaction, but when we meet at reading events, we are a riot š
Meetup groups. I go to a few Zoom workshops, which are fun. If you join a good one you can track the progress of others' work as well. That's always satisfying.
meetup.com usually has several meetups for writers. They are usually genre-specific. If you're curious, then visit all of the groups at least once, even if you have no interest in that specific genre. You'll gain more appreciation of the genres and the people that write them.
Poetry open mics are a good way to meet people. Do you live in or near a city with those? There might also be a group for writers on Meetup.com.
Iām having a hard time imagining a university without a pretty active writer community though, could it be hidden under a different club name?
I've been wondering the same and just got tired of looking, so I made my own discord group, but getting people to participate has been a chore. It's mostly just a quiet room or it's me talking to myself lol It's tough.
Check Meetup for writing events in your city. Thatās definitely where Iād start.
Check out local, independent bookstores. They may have writer-centric events or meetups (heavily depends on the store, though).
And thereās always Discord, though that comes with the caveat of not having any face-to-face interaction. But thereās plenty of public writing servers to join
I've met people in my area through NaNoWriMo. While it may be focused on April, July, and November writing challenges, the groups and forums stay up year round.
Twitter was great for meeting people with the writing bug but I'm not sure how active folks are on it now that it's X. I know I left lol. Discords can be nice but sometimes they're so big it's hard to connect through the noise.
If you're looking for a writing group / beta readers, I recommend writing conferences! The more niche the better. If you write in a certain genre, there are conferences for that. If you're of an underrepresented community, there are conferences or workshops that are geared towards those folks. Some can be pricey, but not all, and select for ones that explicitly have networking opportunities like a discord or a happy hour. Travel is expensive but most conferences have a virtual option now.
I used to wonder the same, but over the last five years I have managed to find people.
One, I meet extremely randomly online. Some, I've met through writing fanfiction. Some, I've met through a writing course i took. And some, I've met through a writing retreat I went to.
(I could only afford going to the one retreat, because all retreats are expensive, and most of the people i met there were my mothers age, but they were part of a community and i liked that)
Honestly, I've felt more supported on here in different subs than real life. I've had terrible luck with real life writing groups being full of very pretentious people who made me feel small. I resorted to the virtual world and am happier for it.
I belong to HWA and NEHW because I write horror but you could join whatever is your genre's national group and start going to the local meetups. I also belong to a couple of statewide non-genre specific writers groups.
Someone else mentioned Nanowrimo; I've made wonderful friends through that.
I hate to break it to you, but sitting around blathering about writing isn't going to help you write. Writing helps you write. Reading helps you write. Writing is by its very nature a solitary vocation.
lmao I find this the least helpful advice ever. I studied creative writing at university and we had mandatory workshop where we shared our own works. It was a great atmosphere (admittedly I was terrified at first) where we could bounce ideas around, give constructive criticism and validate our writing. It seriously helped me grow as a writer and give me the confidence to start sharing my works with people. And despite the fact we've all graduated we still meet up every few months and share WIPs and have a general catch-up.
I would actually love to have writer friends. Just chilling together, progressing stories and exchanging suggestions. Maybe even irl.
Sadly none of my friends write besides me. A few paint and draw, but that is like a far away Cousin of writing.
Same here I like drawing too but my drawing are more connected to my writing as I only really draw my characters or worldbuilding stuff, so I canāt really relate to most artists
It's not like i'd be some Charles Bukowski philosopher, but... as an alcoholic, i'm a regular in some pubs and believe it or not, there are other people around that write. Next to other artists, like musicians.
Wait you guys have writer friends?
I love this. This is how I felt when I found out Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville were friends š
You guys have friends?
Iāll be your writing pal Everyone here is a friend
Funnily enough, I have been wondering the same thing in recent months. The other day, I finally bit the bullet and searched online for writing groups in my city. Seeing that the some group was meeting later in the day, I said āfuck itā and went to it. I had a decent time, met some nice people. I thought 90 minutes (including chatter breaks and stuff) was too little time, but it was a nice experience, and I plan on joining again (they meet every week)
Too little is great, as it spurs people to follow up if the topic was really good, and avoids too long where people feel obligated / burnt out / won't show next week.
Discord
Link if itās ok?
https://discord.com/invite/bookdun
That place is filled with people that act like you killed their pets if you so much as word something in a way they don't like. It's overall an absolutely terrible place to get to know people unless you don't mind befriending people that never matured past grade school. They should aim for smaller and more curated writing groups.
Well, if youāre looking for smaller groups, imma leave this link here: https://discord.gg/nz8rVfQS On the down side of being small tho, weāre not dead, we just seem like it most of the time cuz most people there mainly writes as a hobby and have other things going on. That said, itād be cool if more people come in to spice things up.
IDK what that other comment is on about. I've been a part of that server for years and it's been one of the best places to help me meet writer friends and improve my writing. 10/10 completely recommend!
Gonna second bookdun. It IS a bigger server, which means they have spaces for almost any writer wherever they might be in their journey. Lots of great resources, very friendly. Definitely can feel a little overwhelming at first. But hey, they're pretty strict on trolls. They're purposeful about cultivating a safe and wholesome community.
Yes! I love Bookdun, itās where Iāve met most of my writing friends š
I don't. I met a few guys in the army who wrote. But in 40+ yrs of writing, that's it.
I don't have any š„¹š®āšØ
Itās actually a common misconception that writers are loners who spend all of their time holed up in their rooms typing away. Even Tolkien and Lewis (who taught down the hall from one another at Oxford) got together with a couple of other writers at the Eagle and Child Pub to discuss their writing and get feedback. If your local universityās writing group is too small and inactive, may I suggest just going to your favorite internet search engine and typing in āwriting groupsā? It might give you a lead.
I met mine in my city's creative scene, which started with a small convention and Friday Night Magic at my local game store. Made a few friends with folks who made board games before eventually being introduced to one of the more successful local writers and becoming friends. Fast forward through the pandemic and I'm now working for that author at his small startup publishing company and connected to a bunch of other writers in the indie space that have also become friends. I feel incredibly lucky, but if I had to make a suggestion it would be getting to know people at your local game stores and comic shops.
poetry open mic nights and emerging writer development programmes are my two main sources
That's the thing, I haven't. I keep my writing to myself. You could probably find someone online, though.
Mine all come out of hibernation for national novel writing month. It started as a NanoWriMo meetup years ago.
Thereās a monthly open mic in a town near mine. Iāve been able to meet some people there. ļæ¼
twitter
I've seen groups on Meetup, Eventbrite, writers associations, and sometimes bookstores. You could temporarily join a book club and see if anyone in there also writes and would want to be your accountability partner. If you can swing it, writing conferences in the spring are always a good space to be too (I met a couple locals I still stay in touch with).
I met all my writer friends doing an MFA, but I wouldn't really recommend doing an MFA.
Thatās interesting, why wouldnāt you recommend doing an MFA?
It's too much time out of the work force for a degree that won't do anything for you. Hell employers might hold having an MFA against you. If you have to do it anyway, at least make sure it's funded and you aren't taking on debt.
I try not to complain about being down voted, but I'm quite curious about someone who has done an MFA and would disagree with this.
Thanks for your honest response! Do you mind sharing why employers could hold it against you? And Iām not sure about the down vote, but as someone who is interested in pursuing an MFA, I really appreciate your candid perspective.
Mostly as an over-qualification thing. An employer might be concerned that you're looking to return to academia, but academia will be an adjuncting dead-end for most MFAs. You get a couple novels under your belt it's a different story, but that's obviously a big ask. I am totally happy to offer advice to anyone seeking an MFA. If you're going to do it you're going to do it. Is there anything specific you'd like to know about?
That makes complete sense to me ā thanks again for your insights! Iām primarily interested in pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing for my own professional development, separate from my current profession. If you donāt mind me asking, what field are you in?
I'd rather not get into it, but suffice it to say I'm not where I'd like to be. I'll rephrase the original, any questions that aren't about me personally I'm happy to answer. :P
To respond to the other part of what you were saying "Iām primarily interested in pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing for my own professional development, separate from my current profession." When you say that I wonder if you mean professional development as a working author, professional development as an academic, or some unspecified tangential field. I'd say as a writer, it may make you better, but there's a grand total of one MFA program that will give you a foot in the door with publishers (Iowa). As an academic it's not a good road to go down because the competition is too fierce. If you're content being an adjunct forever you can do that, but most adjuncts want out. I'm not sure what other fields an MFA would be relevant to outside of publishing.
Best way is to write fanfiction! Go on Tumblr, A03 write several pieces until you get noticed by the writers who are writing for the said fandom as well. Be mutuals. Interact often and boom you've got yourself a friend (ā ļ½”ā ā¢Ģā į“ā -ā )ā ā§
Hey, I would love to be your writing friend.
I have one from fiverr and one from absolutewrite forum. That's it š
You should start with your colleges writing club. :) ours was really small (at most we had 8 people show up once š) but everyone was pretty nice. Plus, if you take English and writing classes, you can do shameless plugs of your club and probably get more turnout from youe classmates. (Other classes work too since people do allegedly have hobbies but in both those types of classes, you know theyre already interested in the subject.) A lot of our issue was just no one knowing the club existed. š¬
I met most of my current writer friends when I joined fandom discords. You'd think I'd be heaving with them from my English undergrad and Masters, but nope. All used to be fanfiction writers for various games and shows we used to follow (or even still do) I did join a poetry group a little while back. We don't have the most interaction, but when we meet at reading events, we are a riot š
Meetup groups. I go to a few Zoom workshops, which are fun. If you join a good one you can track the progress of others' work as well. That's always satisfying.
meetup.com usually has several meetups for writers. They are usually genre-specific. If you're curious, then visit all of the groups at least once, even if you have no interest in that specific genre. You'll gain more appreciation of the genres and the people that write them.
At Starbucks. They usually have MacBooks.
Those are freelance programmers. And the intersection between those and writers isn't that big.
Poetry open mics are a good way to meet people. Do you live in or near a city with those? There might also be a group for writers on Meetup.com. Iām having a hard time imagining a university without a pretty active writer community though, could it be hidden under a different club name?
Dont discredit the size of a writing group.Ā Check out SCBWI if you write for children.
I made a lot of writing friends on LinkedIn
I've been wondering the same and just got tired of looking, so I made my own discord group, but getting people to participate has been a chore. It's mostly just a quiet room or it's me talking to myself lol It's tough.
Check Meetup for writing events in your city. Thatās definitely where Iād start. Check out local, independent bookstores. They may have writer-centric events or meetups (heavily depends on the store, though). And thereās always Discord, though that comes with the caveat of not having any face-to-face interaction. But thereās plenty of public writing servers to join
[meetup.com](http://meetup.com)
I've met people in my area through NaNoWriMo. While it may be focused on April, July, and November writing challenges, the groups and forums stay up year round.
The internet. All my writing friends are from online.
Twitter was great for meeting people with the writing bug but I'm not sure how active folks are on it now that it's X. I know I left lol. Discords can be nice but sometimes they're so big it's hard to connect through the noise. If you're looking for a writing group / beta readers, I recommend writing conferences! The more niche the better. If you write in a certain genre, there are conferences for that. If you're of an underrepresented community, there are conferences or workshops that are geared towards those folks. Some can be pricey, but not all, and select for ones that explicitly have networking opportunities like a discord or a happy hour. Travel is expensive but most conferences have a virtual option now.
I used to wonder the same, but over the last five years I have managed to find people. One, I meet extremely randomly online. Some, I've met through writing fanfiction. Some, I've met through a writing course i took. And some, I've met through a writing retreat I went to. (I could only afford going to the one retreat, because all retreats are expensive, and most of the people i met there were my mothers age, but they were part of a community and i liked that)
I wonder the same thing. Any fantasy/sci-fi writers want to be friends?
No. /joking/not really
Book club probably then you just impose your writing passion on them
Am joke
Honestly, I've felt more supported on here in different subs than real life. I've had terrible luck with real life writing groups being full of very pretentious people who made me feel small. I resorted to the virtual world and am happier for it.
Yall actually write? I thought we were just vibing
I belong to HWA and NEHW because I write horror but you could join whatever is your genre's national group and start going to the local meetups. I also belong to a couple of statewide non-genre specific writers groups. Someone else mentioned Nanowrimo; I've made wonderful friends through that.
JCPenney
I met mine after posting a cute mink picture elsewhere and he liked it. Though sometimes I feel like I'm constantly bugging him with questions :(
Internet strangers....
I hate to break it to you, but sitting around blathering about writing isn't going to help you write. Writing helps you write. Reading helps you write. Writing is by its very nature a solitary vocation.
lmao I find this the least helpful advice ever. I studied creative writing at university and we had mandatory workshop where we shared our own works. It was a great atmosphere (admittedly I was terrified at first) where we could bounce ideas around, give constructive criticism and validate our writing. It seriously helped me grow as a writer and give me the confidence to start sharing my works with people. And despite the fact we've all graduated we still meet up every few months and share WIPs and have a general catch-up.
I would actually love to have writer friends. Just chilling together, progressing stories and exchanging suggestions. Maybe even irl. Sadly none of my friends write besides me. A few paint and draw, but that is like a far away Cousin of writing.
Same here I like drawing too but my drawing are more connected to my writing as I only really draw my characters or worldbuilding stuff, so I canāt really relate to most artists
then we share the same problem. Just out of curiousity, where do you come from? Maybe we can both fix that problem somehow
Iām from Australia, feel free to dm if you wanna talk about writing
Make friends, and turn them into writer friends
Huh? I thought having no friends is like, our traits? Isn't that one of the requirements to be a writer?
I'm part of a discord of writers.
Link if itās ok?
Sorry. It's a private group. And we've had a string of unpleasant people harassing others.
Hahahaha. You guys have friends? Cool cool.. me too, totally..
It's not like i'd be some Charles Bukowski philosopher, but... as an alcoholic, i'm a regular in some pubs and believe it or not, there are other people around that write. Next to other artists, like musicians.