14 Nov When is the perfect time to share your writing?

The perfect time to share your writing is a balancing act, for sure. I don’t know exactly where the idea came from (perhaps I just created it!) but I was plagued, for years, with the notion that in order to be a proper writer I ought to be sharing my writing on a regular basis and getting out there making connections and building networks. I put pressure on myself to join a writers’ group (hated it every time I went) and toyed half-heartedly with the possibility of attending literary festivals, workshops and book launches. I wanted to believe what everyone else seemed to believe – that feedback would improve my writing and finding a community of peers would help me survive and grow as a writer. I believe in (and need) both of those things now, but I didn’t fifteen years ago. The time wasn’t right for me then to be engaging in those out there activities. I needed to be working on my craft, alone. And interestingly, despite being an absolute beginner, I somehow knew that’s what I needed. But when we’re ready, how should we go about sharing our work? What are our options? How should we proceed?

Finding a writers’ group

Most of the time, the first thing a writer does when they are wanting support, or wanting to share their work, is look for a writers’ group, either on-line or locally. Writing is a lonely endeavour and writers’ groups appeal because of this. They offer the possibility of connection and community support as we practice our craft. These kind of groups generally offer the chance to share our writing and also, in an ideal world, offer the opportunity to improve our skills. But… it’s a tall order to meet the needs of the disparate writers that walk through the door. Some writers participate in groups because they’re lonely and crave the company of others. Some tolerate the company of others in the hope of learning something. Some have hardly begun writing, whilst others have been writing for decades. Some will be extroverts – happy to read out their work in large groups, and others will despise this aspect of the group’s methodology.. Some will love writing exercises during group time, and others will really only be looking for constructive feedback on their work-in-progress. There may well be poets, novelists, screen-writers, short story writers, flash-fiction writers, playwrights and writers of non-fiction sitting in the circle, all of them practising a different, albeit similar, craft. There will be people writing for fun, and those who are serious about publication.

Trying to meet the needs of everyone, in the spirit of inclusivity, is sometimes just too much to ask. Also…

In the early days writers are susceptible to bad advice

And when I say the early days what I really mean is the early years. Writing is a long apprenticeship. For most writers there are thousands of hours of practice before we begin to find our voice and hone our skills. Until we have, putting our work out there for scrutiny – at a writers’ group or workshop – can be a lottery. Novice writers are unlikely to offer great advice to other novice writers. Looking back, I’ve given some really unhelpful feedback. It was well-intentioned at the time, but misguided. And I’ve been on the receiving end of the same. Giving and receiving feedback is a skill in itself. And the last thing a newbie writer needs is poor advice – it can be confusing and disempowering.

Even worse than well-intentioned bad advice is feedback from the bitter, disillusioned writer. We’ve all met them – the writers who haven’t achieved what they wanted to achieve, who are keen to suck their teeth and smile woefully at the enthusiasm of the inexperienced. They’re quick to tell new writers how impossible it is to get published and how we really need to know someone in the business to stand any chance. They’ll probably also tell you how much rubbish is published these days and how unfair it all is. Let them loose on your own writing and they’ll be more than willing to dismantle it for you, paragraph by paragraph.

Or perhaps it’s all just a bit too lovely

I understand why being lovely about other people’s writing is tempting. It’s easier than learning how to give good feedback for a start. And it’s more comfortable. Some of us hate causing discomfort to others. But what’s the point of feedback, if it isn’t honest? How will we learn without honesty? When our writers’ group is all light and loveliness we risk something huge – we risk walking away from feedback thinking that our writing is something it isn’t. We risk thinking that our writing is better than it is. We risk wasting our precious time.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying “don’t join a writers’ group”. But I am saying that writers’ groups are not always what we hope. We do well to approach any group with our eyes wide open, and to know before we go along what it is we’re hoping for. It’s okay to look dispassionately at whether our writing needs are met by the group. It’s fine to move on if they’re not. And remember, there’s always the option of starting our own group. As a novelist, I found that what I really wanted from a group was the opportunity to work on longer pieces of writing with like-minded writers. I wanted my fellow group members to be willing to read large sections of my novel, to help me set deadlines and to hold me to account. I wanted feedback about story arc and character development and pacing. And I wanted to offer the same to them. It turned out that starting a new, closed, group was the way to achieve this. Exclusivity goes against the grain for me. But, in this case, it worked.

Alternatively, establish a creativity group

If you’re just starting out, getting together with a group of people to do a course such as The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron  is a great way to build a network of creative support. Or you could choose to read through books on writing and creativity as well as working on your own writing. You could try Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert; Coaching the Artist Within by Eric Maisel; On Writing by Stephen King. The creative journey can be up and down. It can be hard work – especially in the early years when you know what you want to create but your skill doesn’t do justice to your vision, and you’re battling your inner critic on a daily basis. Talking about it helps. This kind of group acknowledges the process. It’s about learning what it means to be an ‘artist’. It’s about understanding how to encourage ourselves and others. It’s a journey of self-discovery that provides us with a toolkit of skills that help us find inspiration when everything seems bleak, that help us be gentle with ourselves when we need it and challenging with ourselves when we need that too. Exploring and understanding the creative process is just as important as learning the craft of writing itself; the two will be forever intertwined.

Trusting our judgement

Whatever group we find or create, whether we end up part of an on-line community or with an individual fellow writer that we exchange work with, nobody else can tell us when the time is right to share our writing. We must trust our own judgement.

A few tips for sharing when the time is right

New ideas are particularly shy, prone to drying out if exposed to the light too soon.

Secretly hoping for a “Wow! This is truly astonishing!” response from our first readers is unrealistic. Hoping our work will be exceptional is part of the learning process, and we must get over it. Our work will almost certainly be average for many years and many projects and, even then, for many drafts. There are undoubtedly exceptions to this rule, but we waste our time thinking about them.

We must prepare for our ego to be hurt; the best constructive criticism, expertly given, can still be painful.

We deserve to be excited when we share our writing. Every time we have something to share we have journeyed on a little more. Our skills are a little sharper than last time. If we have something to share then this means we have been turning up on the page and creating – that is the most important thing of all.

And, finally, always remember that there is only one response to feedback: Thank you.

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