by Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo
I live in North Central Massachusetts in a small city just miles from the New Hampshire border. We are sixty or so miles northwest of Boston. We’re sixty or seventy miles east of the Amherst cluster of colleges and universities. We’re pretty rural. I think there must be some writers around here, but connecting with them is challenging. All the writers I know are hours away, many in different time zones. It’s impossible for us to meet face-to-face to share writing goals or problems.
If you live in a big city where writers’ groups are pretty easy to find, or in a funky little rural town where you’re lucky enough to have found fellow writers, you’re all set. There are many positive reasons to participate in a writers’ group: writing is a solitary endeavor and working with others can be a lot less lonely; it’s motivating to have others to whom you will be accountable; you can receive crucial feedback on your work. But if your setting is more rural and you want to connect with other writers, there are a couple of ways to approach this dilemma.
Start your own virtual writer’s group. Gather your writer friends from around the globe. Or place an ad on public online boards like Craigslist, or start a Yahoo Group for gleaning new members. Utilize online free services like Skype or one of the many group IM applications. Determine the purpose of the group, send documents to each other via email, set a schedule to meet online and share work and critiques. You can assist each other with submissions, and research agents and publications together.
Another means of connecting with other writers is through online forums. There are large writing forums on the Internet if you want to hop on board something that is already established: Scribophile, The Write Idea, CritiqueGroups.com, Writing.com, Writers Cafe, Critique Circle Online Workshop, Fuse, Hatrack River Writers Workshop, The Writers, Authonomy, Zoetrope among scores of others. Each have their own slant, so a bit of research is necessary to find the right group for you.
With these online groups, you can share work, get and give critiques and do this with writers from all over the world. Many report a strong sense of community developing. It can be a great place to put your work out, take some risks and receive a wide array of feedback. It can provide wonderful, eyeopening challenges which can lead to growth as a writer.
I have been interested in joining an online writing group for a while. Last week, several writers from Fictionaut shared a guest post about their online writing experiences. I am excited to tell you that they offered me an invitation to join, which I endeavor to do as soon as I emerge from November and my NaNoWriMo adventure! Look for a post in the next month or so where I will share my Fictionaut experience.
How do you solve the problem of finding a writers’ group that fits your circumstances?
Have you joined an online writers’ forum? Please share your thoughts!
Melissa Corliss DeLorenzo is a writer, reader, yogini (when she can squeeze it in), mom, part-time Office Manager, a homemaker and the Coordinator and Writer for The Writer’s Life blog. She loves to cook and take long walks with her kids and is a woman who wants to meaningfully exchange and intersect with other women writers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Currently she works at a web development company (because part-time Office Manager buys more groceries than Struggling Writer). She is at work on a novel and a short story collection. Melissa lives in North Central Massachusetts with her family.
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About Melissa Corliss Delorenzo
Join the Her Circle 
Thank you, Melissa, for reminding me this week about the importance of community in one’s creative journeys. I can certainly relate to the prohibitive effect of isolation. Though I live in a fairly sizeable metropolitan area, the arts scene here is very poor with few opportunities to truly connect. As a result, I often find myself spending hours behind my computer, all the while feeling quite disconnected from the very world I aspire to be a part of every day. If I take anything away from your posts this week, it’s that I have to be more diligent in building a support network, one that will encourage and inspire me in the times I need it most. I look forward to hearing about your experiences with Fictionaut, and of course to sharing your celebrations of the end of NaNo 2010!