As someone who constantly struggles with finding — no, making — the time to write, I just read with interest an article he wrote in 2009 for Locus Magazine. Each point in the article is useful, but this one in particular stood out:

Short, regular work schedule

When I’m working on a story or novel, I set a modest daily goal — usually a page or two — and then I meet it every day, doing nothing else while I’m working on it. It’s not plausible or desirable to try to get the world to go away for hours at a time, but it’s entirely possible to make it all shut up for 20 minutes. Writing a page every day gets me more than a novel per year — do the math — and there’s always 20 minutes to be found in a day, no matter what else is going on. Twenty minutes is a short enough interval that it can be claimed from a sleep or meal-break (though this shouldn’t become a habit). The secret is to do it every day, weekends included, to keep the momentum going, and to allow your thoughts to wander to your next day’s page between sessions. Try to find one or two vivid sensory details to work into the next page, or a bon mot, so that you’ve already got some material when you sit down at the keyboard.

Full article: Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction

If there’s one thing that puts me off writing on any given evening it’s the feeling that I need not bother unless I can achieve 3 or 4 hours of productive output and in order to do this I obviously need to get started straight after dinner, and if I get sidetracked for whatever reason then I obviously may as well not bother today. Twisting Jerry Seinfeld’s Chain System, I’ve successfully managed to keep a contiguous, unbroken chain of “I can’t devote 3-4 hours to writing tonight, so I’ll not bother now and will try again tomorrow” days that is quite impressive.

What struck me about Cory’s article is that it sits perfectly alongside the “write something, anything — but do it every day” mantra and it allows us to have normal working lives. I am intrinsically lazy and I also have a tendency to “collect” hobbies and interests (there’s very little in this life that doesn’t interest me in one way or another) that I may discard weeks or months later, but writing is something I think about every single day — even when I’ve not done any that day. Especially when I’ve not done any that day.

So now I understand that I needn’t write a chapter of polished prose each day, let’s see how Cory’s modest daily goal works out.

The group are called Reading Writers, based in Reading, Berkshire (it’s not meant to be a play on words).

Josh seemed a nice chap and we discussed things ranging from all my queries about the group — including if they were a specific genre group, a literary ‘knitting circle,’ consisted of members with a broad range of levels and types of experience, published and unpublished writers, hold competitions and perform critiques and other challenges to help you progress as a writer — to ideas about publishing, writing tools and software, and other general banter. The whole email experience made the group feel accessible and worthwhile, and I thought I’d share my own experience in case it’s useful to others.

I ended up being the first arrival after the chairperson and secretary, so it was a good chance to introduce myself to them while we set up the tables and chairs. Twenty minutes later the room was full and the meeting began. Tonight’s topic was the Submission Pack and was led by two of the group’s published authors, one primarily a writer of poetry and the other of commercial women’s fiction (chick lit, I think).

The tutorial was run by a combination of lecturing, giving handouts, and individual and group exercises (yes, one of the tutors was a teacher until recently). I don’t think I’m giving out confidential or copyrighted information here (please let me know if I am), and I’m doing so to give you an example of what a writing group can be like.

The Submission Pack — the collection of documents required when submitting work to editors and agents — consists of the following information:

• Autobiography. Roughly half a printed page about you, not your story. Think of it as a job application.
• Synopsis. Roughly one printed page, based around the three-act structure (or similar), including the resolution and ending. It will be read by editors and agents, not your audience.
• Blurb. Not normally written by the author, though sometimes it is requested. Regardless of this, it is an invaluable exercise should an agent ever ask you, “So what’s your story about?” Doing this before you start speaking with editors and agents will provide you with the ‘elevator pitch.’ Condensing it down to a single sentence will provide you with the classic ‘strapline’ or ‘logline.’ Or you can try making something up on the spot when asked. Good luck with that.

The autobiography was approached by getting us to brainstorm and individually list:

• Publishing history. It’s surprising what you can put down, even if you don’t have your name in a magazine or on a novel yet, including any writing prizes and awards.
• Writing qualifications. This including memberships to any writing or reading groups, online communities, and courses taken.
• Unique selling points (USP). Anything that is specific and unique (or rare) to you, not your work. This can include particular skills (e.g. you were once a demonstration parachutist), experience (e.g. you once flew a Cessna to Marrakech and back) or facts about your life (e.g. your family escaped attempted genocide in another country, you have a disability)
• Other relevant information. Anything relevant to your bio that isn’t covered above.

The synopsis was approached by one of the tutors providing us with a synopsis from one of her recent novels and having us go through it, with the aid of a handout that showed the three-act structure and what is expected of a synopsis, and to identify each act. It showed us that a 100,000 word novel with multiple background plots, story arcs, points of view and other complex structures can be condensed into a single printed page that provides an introduction, an explanation of each act as it applies to the main character or characters.

Once we’d done that, we were asked to work in groups of three to write a synopsis of the classic Cinderella fairy tale. I found this initially difficult as I’ve not read, seen or heard that story in its entirety since I was a child but, after a few minutes quite a bit of it came back to me. In reflection, what I found most notable was that the bits I remembered first were the important parts of the three-act structure (rather than the details of what people said, etc): the problem definition and setup, the event that starts it all, high and low points, the darkest (rug-pulling) moment, climax and resolution. That was enough to bullet-point the exercise, and from there it was straightforward.

The blurb was approached by providing examples from popular current books:

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Look at the Product Description section for each of these books on Amazon (links provided) — that’s the blurb. In each case, it is a single paragraph that provides a broad overview of the story without going into detail or ruining the ending, but getting you interested. The idea is to hook the potential reader.

From there we were provided a handout containing two groups of straplines and one group of book titles. The first group were actual novel or film straplines that most of us recognised, the second were similar to the first but were written by one of the tutors and we got some of them, and for the last group we were asked to spent 2-3 minutes writing our own straplines. I found writing the straplines quite challenging, and I think it may have been because I tend to write a lot and then edit down to a manageable size; the cost of that is time.

After the meeting had finished around two-thirds of the group went to the pub next door for drinks, so it was great to sit down with a pint and chat with people from all walks of life, and different generations, all with the common interest of writing. Each person wanted to know what I wrote and what I thought of this and that, and was equally passionate about sharing their writing styles and thoughts. Around the table were writers of chick lit, Regency period historical fiction, erotica, hard science fiction, fantasy, poetry, romance, etc. Fascinating.

So that was my experience at my first writing group. I have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve had in some time, and I can’t recommend the experience enough to other people. If you’re a writer and are not a member of a writing group, you’re doing both yourself and a writing group somewhere a disservice.

Flickr CC-BY dbdbrobot

For some time I’ve been considering joining a writing group, as many writer friends have told me that they are an invaluable resource to the writer, regardless of whether you’re just starting to put pen to paper or if you’re JK Rowling.

From my own research, here are some ways in which writing groups are useful:

• Social environment. Writing is a lonely occupation, and being able to socialise with, get to know and connect with other like-minded people is a remarkably cathartic experience. What better thing for a writer to do than attending a useful meeting, then visit the pub afterwards and talk writing over a pint?
• Getting your work critiqued. Many writers initially rely upon family or friends for opinions of our writing, and rare is the family member or friend who tells you exactly what you need to hear in a way that avoids getting your back up. You will also be dealing with writers who know what to look for, understand how a story is structured, and know what to expect at certain points. This is also a vital step in learning how to grow a thick skin, an unavoidable pre-requisite to anyone seeking publication.
• Learning how to critique. Beyond simple typographical and grammatical issues, most people haven’t a clue how to analyse a piece of work. Being in a writing group will teach you this vital skill. which you can also apply to your own work.
• Tricks of the trade. Most people know that writing is more than just getting a neat idea down on paper. From poem, lyric and short story to novel, multi-volume epic and film, there are technical aspects of storytelling that nearly all works follow. Understanding the three-act structure and the Hero’s Journey will give understandable structure to almost every story ever written, and knowing what kind of event to place at which point will make all the difference. The concepts of main story or plot, backstory, background plot, story arcs, cameos, time-shifting and other techniques will give your stories greater appeal and better cohesion
• Learning about markets. The modern writer needs to know a lot more than ‘simply’ how to write good stories. If you are seeking publication, then you need to understand markets, publishers, agents, and how to write for and tailor your works to them. This goes for poetry, short stories, fiction, non-fiction, novels and screenplays.
• Learning about genres and audiences. The genre in which you write will determine its readership and directly relate to potential sales. For example, science fiction is well known for its obsessively loyal followers (who will often buy every piece of work an author publishes), but one price is their demanding nature and intolerance of logic and continuity problems. They often know your universe better than you, its creator. This can also mean your target audience is a much smaller slice that popular general fiction that might normally appear on your favourite book show (two popular UK shows being The Book Show and The TV Book Club).
• Getting to know published authors. Most general writing groups consist of members whose experiences range from those just realising they might like to write, to old hands who have 20 or more books published, all sorts of awards under their belts, and in many and varied markets and genres. This gives a writer a chance to look across genres and markets. You may see yourself as a character-driven fantasy writer, and then may be surprised to discover that the skills used in that genre translate easily to children’s fiction, historical fiction or even romance.
• Networking. It’s a simple fact that being a within a group means that you have people of diverse backgrounds, with equally diverse social and professional circles. The simple act of making a friend in such a group can open doors that would otherwise have remained closed (or been much harder to open).
• Competitions and awards. Many groups run their own competitions throughout the year, and some give awards to members based on things such as their improvement or number of published works. Others will also participate as a group in third-party competitions, writing and entering as a group exercise. Not only can this give you immense satisfaction and encouragement, but it gives you the ability to include “Winner of…” in your author biographies and submission information.
• Accountability. Most groups have regular ‘manuscript meetings’ where all members are asked to submit a short story (sometimes with a theme) to the group. Each member reads one another’s work and that is used to gauge your progress as a writer, help you find suitable material for submission to publication, teach you how to accept and give constructive criticism, and teach you how to analyse writing. Depending upon the group, it is unlikely that submitting your stories for critiquing is compulsory, but not making use of such a valuable facility is unlikely to do your writing much good (editors or agents are unlikely to look kindly upon a submission with basic errors).
• Simply being a member. Just being a member of a writing group, and attending and participating at whatever level suits you, is likely to have an immediate and lasting positive effect on your writing and your sense of purpose as a writer. There is also the added benefit that membership to such as group counts as a writing qualification for your author biography when submitting work, and shows that you take writing seriously.
• If you’re the old hand. If you’re the JK Rowling or Stephen King of your writing group, then the benefit you get may be different to everyone else. You’re unlikely (though it’s possible) to learn much about the craft of writing and the massive publishing behemoth that straddles it, but you will be an invaluable resource for advice, tutorials, guidance and other philanthropic activities. For some people that’s going to be an immediate disincentive, but for others that gives them the opportunity to put something back into the writing community and potentially mentor the Next Big Thing. Sure, they may wind up being your competition, but surely that will make you a better writer?

So if you are a writer of any level, or are interested in becoming one, I exhort you to find your local writing group (preferably find a couple within reach so you have a choice), make contact and go along. You have nothing to lose, and it may open up a world that you never thought existed.

Your favourite search engine is your friend when it comes to knowing where to start to find your local writing group. Ten seconds of searching found me some howtos (suite101, eHow), directories (FindAWritingGroup, Writer Magazine), and of course try searching for “writing group” followed by your location.

Flickr CC-BY publicdomainphotos

Ever since I first connected to the Internet in 1989, the month after it first became available to the general public, I have been using it as a social medium, in addition to its other manifold uses. Back then the social aspect was limited to a text-based chat client (ytalk), Usenet client (nn), and very basic email client (Elm or Pine) — which included mailing lists and newsletters — and, of course, no spam! If you weren’t online then, think of the anticipation that Google Wave is generating today, how there’s almost nobody using it and how everyone’s uncertain of whether it’s going to explode in popularity or quietly disappear.

Over time came the graphical WWW (via Mosaic in 1993), personal websites, free personal webmail and, while the popularity of email list-servers was enormous and growing, people began creating everything for web browsers. This included converting already existing applications, protocols and concepts to use in a browser — one of these was the re-invention of the mailing list as the WWW forum. Mailing lists are still popular, but seem to be more specialised and limited to more technically-savvy Internet users. Web forums are point-and-click, and they’re everywhere.

Today, just about everyone who uses the Internet is a member of at least one forum, and they have largely taken over mailing lists and the Usenet as places to ask questions, social centres and searchable repositories of information. There is a forum for just about any topic you could possibly imagine and, if you don’t want to go to the expense of hosting your own server or paying for a hosting provider to do it for you, there are advertising-sustained forum providers who will let you create a free forum within minutes.

Regardless of how the technology is implemented, the core idea and result has always been the same: to allow people interested in a certain topic to converse on threaded topics and, with the increasing ubiquity of effective Internet-wide search engines and their software robots, allow searching within fractions of a second. The writing community is no different. While they may vary in their approach, their rules, their levels and type of access, there are writing forums out there that cater for all genres and styles of writing.

I thought I’d write this post to give a brief background of forums and to share a list of some writing forums, though I’ve not necessarily joined them (I am a member of those marked with an asterisk):

• Author Advance*: Social network (with status updates), submission tracking, etc.
• Author’s Den
• BBC Writersroom*: The place to be if you want to write for BBC film, TV or radio.
• Crime Online
• The Dragon’s Inn
• Freelance Writing
• Great Writing*: Was formed from the BBC GetWriting project; releases contributor anthologies.
• Horror Writers UK
• Litopia Writer’s Colony*: Related to the Litopia podcasts.
• UKAuthors
• The Word Cloud
• Writelink
• Writersdock*: Offers community critiquing and writing prompts, among other things.
• Writertopia
• WriteWords
• Writing.com

While I very much hope these are helpful to you, I would appreciate it if you would add your favourite writing forums via the Comments at the bottom of this post. If I get a good response, I’ll look at editing this post to include your recommendations, and that should make this a useful post to new writers or writers who are new to the Internet.

Here is Dustin Wax’s 10 Podcasts for Writers Worth Listening To and his own descriptions of them:

1. I Should be Writing: Mur Lafferty is a self-described “would-be writer” who actually has quite a few credits to her name, now. ISBW covers the ins-and-outs of writing, from coming up with ideas to self-publishing to writing queries. (RSS | iTunes)
2. Lifehack Live: Pardon me for plugging my own show, but I have lots of great writers on — as well as productivity experts, life coaches, and entrepreneurs, all of which have something to say to writers, I think. Lifehack Live is on hiatus at the moment, but there’s plenty of good stuff in the archives. (RSS | iTunes)
3. Freelance Radio: FreelanceSwich‘s podcast features John Brougher, Cyan Ta’eed (co-author of the awesome book How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer), Kristen Fischer, and Dickie Adams discussing the ins and outs of freelancing, with a focus on practical business-related questions like “how do freelancers get insurance” and “how do you say ‘no’ to a client?” (RSS | iTunes)
4. The Writing Show: Author Paula Berinstein tackles everything from where writers find inspiration to where writers can get published, with probing interviews of writers, publishers, editors, agents, and others. There are several “threads”, including ongoing “reality show” series tracking beginning writers through the process of submitting and revising their work for publication, and more traditional “one-off” shows featuring guests talking about whatever topic they’re particularly knowledgable about.  (RSS | iTunes)
5. PerfCast: The official podcast of Performancing, covering all aspects of blogging including the business aspects, generating revenue, and promotion. Some of this might be off-topic for most writer’s blogs, but there’s a lot of good advice for turning your own writer’s blog into a blog powerhouse — and if your preferred form of writing happens to be blogging, this is required listening. (RSS)
6. Litopia: Litopia consists of two podcasts. The first, Litopia Daily, is a short daily round-up of news of interest to writers. The second, Litopia After Dark, is a longer weekly round-table dscussion of issues in the writing and publishing worlds. (RSS | iTunes)
7. The Creative Writing Podcast: Tom Occhipinti offers tons of advice for fiction writers, from tips on characterization or setting to overviews of genres. (RSS | iTunes)
8. Grammar Girl: Mignon Fogarty offers “quick and dirty tips for better writing” in this twice-weekly show on the ins and outs of English grammar. More fun than your Third Grade English teacher, by a long shot! (RSS)
9. Writing Excuses: A recent discovery for me, this podcast features three writers (Brandon Sanderson , Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells) talking about various writing challenges, either amongst themselves or with guest interviewees. Short — because, they say, “you’re in a hurry and we’re not that smart”) — fun, and surprisingly helpful considering their self-professed lack of brain power… (RSS | iTunes)
10. HotForWords: I debated whether or not to add this one — it’s video instead of audio, it’s risqué, and it’s quite simply weird. A young, attractive, and often sexily-clad woman with a rich accent discusses the origin of odd words and phrases in the English language. It would be deeply offensive (and maybe it still is) if it weren’t so fascinating! (RSS | iTunes)

A couple of points to add to the above list:

• Freelance Radio: Cyan is not on the show much anymore, but her slot seems to have been filled by illustrative designer Von Glitschka. Together they cover a good cross-section of the freelancing market.
• Grammar Girl: This is written with American English in mind and, aside from the obvious Websterian differences, uses style guides common to North America (Strunk & White, etc). However, whenever an issue of style arises, Mignon states which style guide she’s using.
• Writing Excuses: Despite their humble tagline and approach, the speakers of this podcast are at or near the top of their field. To give you an idea: Brandon was selected to complete the late Robert Jordan’s epic The Wheel of Time series, Howard writes the excellent Shlock Mercenary web comic strip, and Dan is an accomplished horror writer.

I’ve been a fan of ISBW, Freelance Radio, The Writing Show, and Grammar Girl for some time, and I just love Writing Excuses, so you can see why I was happy to share this list. I’ll be adding Lifehack Live, Litopia and The Creative Writing Podcast to my iTunes list.

For what it’s worth, I did check out HotForWords some time ago, but I can’t really get into video podcasting — something about having to sit at my PC or squint into my iPhone to watch regularly-released video content just doesn’t appeal to me. Your mileage may, of course, vary…

So check them out and let me know what you think of them. Be sure to let Dustin know, too!