My Writers Group, My Home

My usual routine as over-achiever to my writing was not up to par this past week. However, one paragraph at a time, a few minutes at a time, I’m moving forward in my current project. Opportunities of growth in other ways bided my time.

For one, I’m excited to announce the Traditions Anthology with The Covington Writers Group is about to be published. Our secretary and I met a few evenings back for our last round of editing. It is a compilation of awesome works, as contributed by our members. 

We have our regular annual anthology to be edited next, and I’ve accepted the Lead Editor role to get prepped for publication. During the past eight months, I’ve heard so many wonderful stories shared. Some true, some not but inspired by real life events, and some which pull me into make-believe. I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on what I’ve had first dibs at.

I encourage writers, of any genre(s), to take active part in a writer’s group. Aside from a beta group, shared interests are explored, and friendships made. Or, so, that’s been my wonderful experience. They have been my lifesaver as I work through the third revision to my current project. Reasons I encourage you to join a writers group are:

Constructive Feedback: To share work means to be open to others’ views. I take what I can use, welcome my ah-ha moments, and follow-up by revising my work, where needed.  

Encouragement: Shared guidance strengthens myself as a writer among writers, and allows me the opportunity to support others in their endeavors. 

Inspiration: Open dialogue, discussion, and friendships among those with the same interests (writing) can easily open a flood of writing ideas.

Motivation: To start a writing project, and then to be accountable to your peers to work through it, and then finish such project.

Skills: Language, grammar, vocabulary, dialogue use, story plots, character descriptions, resources, networking, and learning about how to write. 

To become gratefully open-minded: To hear others share their work strengthens my listening skills, and gives me opportunities to learn writing techniques. 

And it is for those reasons, I was happy to accept the volunteer commitment to help edit our Traditions Anthology, and look forward to editing our 2016 Anthology. 

Secondly, my time has been taken up in house shopping, house buying, and cleaning out my apartment closets for a yard sale. Although I’m not at that chapter yet, I have a life experience to add to the closing words in my current writing project. While I’ve been disappointed in my recent self-made interruptions to my marathon days with writing, I can appreciate this life experience for its remarkable place for inclusion in my manuscript.

If anyone in my neighborhood of Northern Kentucky needs a real estate buyer’s agent, I highly recommend my good friend, Alvena. Yes, with a big thank you to my late father’s gifts, as of last week, I’m now a proud homeowner. It’s the first house on a foundation I’ve ever owned (and here I am, nearly fifty years old.) You can read more about my father on my Dedications Page.

Until next Sunday, make yourself a great week at writing, and I will do the same. 

-Elle-