Writers Groups are so Supportive and Helpful.

 I've been in five different writing groups over the past 30 years. All have been friendly and encouraging, some have been more helpful on a practical level than others but all were/are supportive. I didn't realise how lonely writing is as an activity before I joined my first group, probably 30 years ago. I've moved on but I still remember some of the others involved, and I have a novel by the group leader, James Waddington. 

As a solitary writer long before I joined my first group, in the mid 1990's, it was terrifying sharing my words with others for the first time. Any attempts to read my work to family or friends were largely greeted with indifference. The attitude seemed to be, why couldn't I have a more interesting hobby? Archery maybe, or pottery, baking and anyway if I liked words so much shouldn't I be interested in crosswords? Or playing computer games with my children. I tried all those, some with more conviction than others, but nothing replaced the stories and characters in my head, keening and thumping to get out.

In a writers' group, there are people who can understand this. People who know you need to leave others watching Breaking Bad or playing Warhammer and go elsewhere to tackle your own battles with pen and paper or Microsoft Word. 

So my current writers' group, The St Leonards Writers, help me share my work, stimulate new ideas and, now I'm seven years in, are giving me the opportunity to encourage other writers who are newer to sharing their love of this engrossing and, to normal people, crazy activity.