Oh, my sweet sweet scribblers!
For most of 2025, I've been attending a Friday afternoon writing group called Scribble Society. It's held at my local library (Jefferson City, TN) in a room with sound-proof glass all around it so you can look out and see the shelves of books marching off into the distance and they don't have to put up with us when we get rowdy. Usually there're about five or six of us in attendance, reading things we've written that week or talking about our projects. Sometimes we spend a little time writing quick-and-dirty prose from prompts, or we just geek out about our favorite authors. It's always amazing though.
The long and winding road:
I started writing a book in 2020 during the uncertainty of COVID-19. Like many people at the time I picked up a hobby because it seemed like the thing to do. Writing, playing guitar, or painting miniature models of factories is better than sitting around and waiting for the world to end, right? I've always been an avid reader AND a creative person so it made a kind of sense (at the time) to start writing. Writing a book had also been on my bucket list forever and I figured what the Hell. The problem was that writing is hard and sucking at writing is very easy.
I got discouraged.
I'm not sure how many words I wrote on A Dark Flowering, but I walked away before I was able to finish. It was about a sinkhole opening up and releasing an ancient, underground plant out into the light. Botanical horror. I think it's a good idea but I didn't know what I was doing. I threw down my toys and went home.
I've read a lot of books about writing since 2020. I'm staring at a shelf of them right now. There are a lot of good ones in the marketplace that can help you learn the skills you need to produce something above the level of garbage, but reading alone won't get the job done.
By 2022 I had learned enough about writing to start working on my second attempt at a novel. This time, for real. Into the West is about three brothers emigrating from Charleston to Oregon Territory in 1856. It's historical fiction with vampires, voodoo, and eldritch gods. I think it's a better idea than the first one and there's a lot of room in it to get super-creative. Anyway, I wrote 50,000 words, basically the first half of the book, before I stopped this time. Notice I didn't say quit. I had learned enough by then to know that I didn't know enough. Get it? My problem was that I really needed a better defined outline than what I started with.
I read some books on outlining and got to work. I ended up with a 56-page outline that frazzled like the ends of a rope. It seems the problem wasn't my original outline after all. The problem was that my story is very complex and I don't have the skills to wrangle it into a manageable narrative.
I quit again after all. By this time it was the middle of 2023.
Quitting the failed second attempt really bothered me after investing so much time and effort into learning about writing. So yet again, I came back with a plan...and it wasn't a bad one. This time I focused on short stories. I reasoned that they were inherently less complicated than a full novel, and thus more likely for me to finish.
I wrote in spurts for most of 2024 and never finished a short story. I did work on some good ones, I just couldn't seem to finish anything. What the Hell was wrong with me? I've always been good at coming up with ideas. Seeing them through to completion is the hard part. Writing is not the first thing in my life I've started to do and not finished. But it's probably the thing that hurts the most.
At the end of 2024, I had come to realize a few key things about myself:
- Ideas are easy, but I don't feel any sense of accomplishment from just coming up with ideas.
- Writing is hard. Society respects good authors for a reason.
- I do want to write something that other people appreciate.
- I have a lot more work to do.
What changed?
I don't remember exactly how it played out but somewhere I saw something about a writing group at the library. The library is about fifteen minutes from my house so the investment in checking it out was minimal. I had read that a writing group was beneficial but hadn't looked for one seriously because I didn't think I was good enough. There, I said it. I'm so glad I did though.
It's the single most effective thing I've done for my writing.
Scribble Society has given me a group of friends that all want to get better at the same things I do. There are retired folks that write poetry and short stories that make me laugh. There's a teenager there that's written a novel. An actual book! And I'm jealous. They motivate me in so many ways.
- Seeing others do well and improve makes me want to do the same.
- We meet weekly so I better work on something; I don't want to disappoint them.
- Reading your writing out loud helps you write better sentences.
- We share information about local conferences, upcoming contests, and resources.
With the help of the group, I've entered several contests and finished pieces that might've never been written. I'm writing, and finishing, short stories and learning new things. And I'm working on my outline again.
If the group disbanded tomorrow, I would have to find a new one. If I got published tomorrow and made a million bucks, I would still be there on Friday to read something I've been working on. I can't say that every writer should have a writing group, but I can confidently say that I am lost without it.
Thank you Scribblers.
Comments
Post a Comment