online writers groups

online writers groups

The Impact and Benefits of Online Writers Groups

1. Introduction to Online Writers Groups

An online writers group is a community of practice for professional writers to communicate and engage with other writing professionals. It is an online gathering for networking, support, and critique. For authors with already published works, these groups can be specifically devoted to the promotion of published books. Some groups are genre-specific, which is part of what attracts many writers. There are poetry community writers groups that concentrate on various forms of poetry as well. These groups or communities will have individuals who pen short stories, novels, children’s literature, and scriptwriting as well. They will also act as a collective body, taking on public service activities or engaging in fundraising and networking opportunities.

Online writers groups are established to bring writers and readers together. They also provide resources and advice for both new and experienced writers. These online communities are for the sharing of works, information, and critique, utilizing chat features and message boards. Creating a solid network of support is key to a writer’s success. This can mean regular visits to various writing-related websites, a bit of lurking and a bit of posting on the message boards or on a message board that serves the type of writing that is done most often. A helpful lifetime member of the writing community can make a vast difference in a writer’s outlook and career.

2. Advantages of Participating in Online Writers Groups

Occasionally, we’d be listened to and praised by patient friends and family who listened to us read from the ponderous manuscript. And if we had a good voice, they might be seduced into giving us additional support in the form of motivation when none exists, assistance with research, or encouraging year-end tax forms showing expenses incurred in the activity of writing. Meanwhile, the willingness of good friends to support us began to lessen as yours truly was seen reaching out for help again and often again with no mention of the manuscript, not helping themselves. Enter the Internet Writers Group, and suddenly you’re part of a new and supportive family and their group therapy.

Every field of endeavor represents a journey—that from novitiate to mastery. For writers, this journey often begins in isolation, but increasingly it’s starting among the electronic murmurings of supportive others. This trend is neither coincidence nor conspiracy. When, as emerging writers, we shut ourselves away to write, we’re fleeing from the support of those well-meaning but unhelpful acquaintances who long ago declared we had a way with words, even though they never saw any work in progress. Their comments were deeds of kindness that allayed our insecurities and gave us the courage to take time out from our busy lives. But when, with typical flipsy confidence, we turned to our computers to write the next ‘Regulator,’ ‘Grisham,’ or ‘Rice’ masterpiece, our faith would falter as we stumbled to master tension, characterizations, conflict. Meanwhile, the manuscript piled up and called out silently for kudos.

3. Key Features and Platforms of Online Writers Groups

Key Features and Platforms of Online Writers Groups There is a growing diversity of online writers groups operating informally and through word-of-mouth, many hinging around reciprocal agreements to read and respond to each other’s writing with constructive feedback, critique, and encouragement to improve and deepen. The key features of the online writers group, common across platforms, consist of the primary exchange of short works that is individually dispersed, allowing time for consideration of feedback. Due to the potential distance of participants, members only have a sense of the writer through information presented in the story, such as the writer’s name and title. Some online writers groups would require specific aspects such as genres, word count, realism, a beginning, middle, and end, a marginal icon that facilitates reader responses and critiques that spotlight the work’s strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for others to evaluate.

The advances of digital technologies have significantly expanded and transformed the practice and landscape of creative writing, with particular implications for online writing groups. Although most online writers groups operate informally and by word-of-mouth, the reciprocal relationships and intimate knowledge exchange in these groups can serve as a growing aspect of writers’ development, literary citizenship, and social and emotional support for personal growth and well-being. The paper provides the key features of online writers groups, highlights the growing variety of online platforms – social networking sites, web forums, email lists, Skype, Facebook, Dropbox, Google Docs, The Online Writing Workshop for SF, F and Fantasy, Scribophile, and workshops within MFA programs, and contextualizes online writers groups in scaffolding and legitimation.

4. Case Studies and Success Stories

Four guests got together in a hotel room to share their reactions to their VCWI journey so far, answer questions, laugh a great deal, and ultimately open more dialogue with everyone on the list. Since the weekend, many guests have joined in, sharing their own comments or questions, overwhelming to receive so much help from you all. All four of the seminar guests who spent a memorable morning with us in the hotel claimed that without the presence of the others on the Projects list, they would never have initiated or accomplished the things that have led them down the path to NOW! It seems to me that Victoria and Val did the most soul-searching and pushing with Victoria succeeding more than she ever thought possible and with Val realizing more about herself than she ever imagined! By attending, I have been able to meet my critique partners Val, Victoria, and Dee. Our critique group is amazing, as is the close bond and guidance these ladies deliver. I have been amazed at how the group has blossomed – from a support system without a name, to a critique group without structure, to a powerful forum of emerging authors and illustrators.

One way to demonstrate the effectiveness of writers groups is to point to case studies or success stories. The following are several examples of authors, along with brief descriptions of their stories, who have had positive experiences because of participation in Virtual Writer. A great example of a successful writers group is a group of children’s authors in the San Francisco Bay area, led by author Alexis O’Neill. Several years ago, Alexis founded an e-mail list group, with the purpose of providing children’s authors who met on the road at various book events a way to stay connected and to discuss writing, books, and life.

5. Conclusion and Future Trends

The real-time awareness of the existence of this community that classical educational tools cannot provide is at the center of our proposed Writing Companion, a peer-to-peer service that offers real-time assistance on brainstorming, drafting, revising, document analysis, grammar checking, and reference addressing. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 summarizes previous initiatives related to students, teachers, and authors, independently and in isolation from other potential members of the learning community. Section 3 discusses requirements on a Writing Companion while Section 4 introduces the companion proposal. Section 5 draws some conclusions and outlines future work.

In conclusion, the members of the virtual writing community have more confidence when discussing their ideas or presenting their work, and they argue less, possibly because the virtual community has so few antisocial behaviors. The online writers’ group is much more than a traditional instructor that meets physical needs in a real-world class. Online coursework can substitute with physical class time in traditional distance education. Virtual writing community’s members learn from writing classes or seminars and from other writers, established helps in their career and are respected by the community. Future research trends could aid well-designed support for both exclusive and supplementary cultural features of different learning communities and improved tools for the building and maintenance of correctly functioning community social systems.