Writers.Ink.ie

femur61

Hi
I know there are things you can't ask, but this is €49 for Facebook Writing Group. Does anyone know if it is worth it?

Do you get feedback? I can't see how it works as it seems such a large group to get professional feedback?

It is expensive, I could be wrong but it seems like any other writing group.

Unfortunately with covid, my writing group is non-existent and so is my creativity.

Thanks.

Das Kitty

Heya.

Personally I’d rather spend the 600 a year going to workshops and retreats. It might be worth it while all that stuff is on pause.

km85264

I've been a member of the Writers' Ink group since the start, September last year or thereabouts. I'm not sure I'm the best person to discuss the value of it, to be honest I wasn't even sure how much it was; as my kids are growing up and moving out, the money pressures are easing. I'll come back to the value thing. Let me tell you about my experience first.

I went through a horrible time in work in August/September last year, 14-16 hour days, 7 days a week, executive meetings with the CIO every night at 9pm. It was truly horrible. I was hugely dependent on my writing to keep a little bit of sanity in my life, but getting out to a class was not an option. This online group came along, it was a no brainer.

The group is well over a hundred active members, a few folks who know each other or meet up for coffee because they are geographically close but mostly spread across the country and indeed across the world, half a dozen ex-pats and one or two furreners. The atmosphere is very positive and very friendly. Although I've only gone to one hook up event, Covid has killed all that, there are a few of the folks I would consider friends and I chat to outside the group space. The day to day chat is very affirmative and supportive and if you fancy telling people about the bad stuff going on in your life they'll be queuing up to stand beside you.

There's a different online topic every day Monday to Friday: Monday is writing plans, Tuesday is Vanessa's tips, Wednesday is a word or picture prompt, you can submit a 2-500 word piece based on it, Thursday is your work in progress posting day, Friday is the weekly wins. There will be one or two live zooms each week, Vanessa and Maria talking to an author or agent, a chat about some aspect or other of publishing etc. Folks are free to raise new topics as they wish, e.g. what you've been reading or Nanowrimo. Fairly standard stuff.

Michelle was saying that workshops and retreats would be her preference. I don't disagree. You get so much more in a building skills sense out of face to face work. Take Thursday's work in progress posting, you're supposed to limit it to 500 words, and you're more likely to get affirmation back than solid criticism that you can use to develop. That said, I absolutely love reading other people's work and commenting, and I always try to feed back something they can work on.

The standard is across the board. There are a few working writers, a lot of us in my position of a long history of writing but yet to make the breakthrough with a novel, many complete beginners. We did have one writer who started off never having had anything published and now she has a book contract. Vanessa - aka Sam Blake - is a working writer and her Tuesday tips are often in depth descriptions of the editing process on her work in progress which is fascinating.

I love the group, it's a warm place to be, helps me with my mental health, I get a real kick out of some of the chatting. Has it really helped me? Actually yes it has, though I tell this tale with caution, don't expect this to happen to everybody on the group.

Shortly after I joined I got my annual rejection from the Novel Fair, my fourth now. I had also sent out 4 or 5 approach letters to agents and got one response - negative of course. So I used the Thursday WIP day to post my synopsis-in-progress. I got some useful comments but Vanessa slated it, I had definitely taken a wrong course with it. I worked away on it, sharing versions directly with Vanessa until one day she pointed out that my novel climax featured self-harm. You can't have a good outcome from somebody self-harming. I get that. So I went back and rewrote the end of the novel, then rewrote the synopsis, swapped a couple more versions with Vanessa, then she passed what i had on to Sara O'Keefe who had just joined Aevitas agency. Sara loved my book and now I'm signed with her and actively working on an edit of the novel that she's going to try to flog. Woohoo!

Sorry for rattling on. Like I say I love the group, but frankly the expense is secondary to me. If it gets me through the week, helps me stay in my job, then it's worth the cost to me. A huge positive also is that it's been there right through the Covid, no breaks. But yes, it's expensive and you're probably not going to get the solid value for money that you might get from face to face classes or retreats. So you have to make your own call. If you can afford it, I'd say give it a go. If you're going "how ******* much?" then it's probably not for you.

Kieran

Das Kitty

km85264 wrote: »

I've been a member of the Writers' Ink group since the start, September last year or thereabouts. I'm not sure I'm the best person to discuss the value of it, to be honest I wasn't even sure how much it was; as my kids are growing up and moving out, the money pressures are easing. I'll come back to the value thing. Let me tell you about my experience first.

I went through a horrible time in work in August/September last year, 14-16 hour days, 7 days a week, executive meetings with the CIO every night at 9pm. It was truly horrible. I was hugely dependent on my writing to keep a little bit of sanity in my life, but getting out to a class was not an option. This online group came along, it was a no brainer.

The group is well over a hundred active members, a few folks who know each other or meet up for coffee because they are geographically close but mostly spread across the country and indeed across the world, half a dozen ex-pats and one or two furreners. The atmosphere is very positive and very friendly. Although I've only gone to one hook up event, Covid has killed all that, there are a few of the folks I would consider friends and I chat to outside the group space. The day to day chat is very affirmative and supportive and if you fancy telling people about the bad stuff going on in your life they'll be queuing up to stand beside you.

There's a different online topic every day Monday to Friday: Monday is writing plans, Tuesday is Vanessa's tips, Wednesday is a word or picture prompt, you can submit a 2-500 word piece based on it, Thursday is your work in progress posting day, Friday is the weekly wins. There will be one or two live zooms each week, Vanessa and Maria talking to an author or agent, a chat about some aspect or other of publishing etc. Folks are free to raise new topics as they wish, e.g. what you've been reading or Nanowrimo. Fairly standard stuff.

Michelle was saying that workshops and retreats would be her preference. I don't disagree. You get so much more in a building skills sense out of face to face work. Take Thursday's work in progress posting, you're supposed to limit it to 500 words, and you're more likely to get affirmation back than solid criticism that you can use to develop. That said, I absolutely love reading other people's work and commenting, and I always try to feed back something they can work on.

The standard is across the board. There are a few working writers, a lot of us in my position of a long history of writing but yet to make the breakthrough with a novel, many complete beginners. We did have one writer who started off never having had anything published and now she has a book contract. Vanessa - aka Sam Blake - is a working writer and her Tuesday tips are often in depth descriptions of the editing process on her work in progress which is fascinating.

I love the group, it's a warm place to be, helps me with my mental health, I get a real kick out of some of the chatting. Has it really helped me? Actually yes it has, though I tell this tale with caution, don't expect this to happen to everybody on the group.

Shortly after I joined I got my annual rejection from the Novel Fair, my fourth now. I had also sent out 4 or 5 approach letters to agents and got one response - negative of course. So I used the Thursday WIP day to post my synopsis-in-progress. I got some useful comments but Vanessa slated it, I had definitely taken a wrong course with it. I worked away on it, sharing versions directly with Vanessa until one day she pointed out that my novel climax featured self-harm. You can't have a good outcome from somebody self-harming. I get that. So I went back and rewrote the end of the novel, then rewrote the synopsis, swapped a couple more versions with Vanessa, then she passed what i had on to Sara O'Keefe who had just joined Aevitas agency. Sara loved my book and now I'm signed with her and actively working on an edit of the novel that she's going to try to flog. Woohoo!

Sorry for rattling on. Like I say I love the group, but frankly the expense is secondary to me. If it gets me through the week, helps me stay in my job, then it's worth the cost to me. A huge positive also is that it's been there right through the Covid, no breaks. But yes, it's expensive and you're probably not going to get the solid value for money that you might get from face to face classes or retreats. So you have to make your own call. If you can afford it, I'd say give it a go. If you're going "how ******* much?" then it's probably not for you.

Kieran

That sounds brilliant. I might sign up myself after reading that.

km85264

Well, I hope I haven't oversold it, but let me know if you do decide to jump on.