Oh No! We’ve Lost Our Spark 😟

Writing A ‘Seasoned Romance’ With My Writing Group

Introducing Denise and Margaret. Denise is our professional writer who takes what everyone has written and pulls it all together. Margret writes scenes whenever she can.

It Was All Going Great…Until It Wasn’t!

The Problem

Previously, there was no critique of what each writing group member wrote for the weekly meetings. It was strictly an interesting and fun exercise and the opportunity to socialise.

• Now, there were genre conventions and structures to contend with.

• Problems with too much description and too much ‘telling’ arose.

• After Denise and I completed our respective edits, the text did not read exactly the same as the original drafts. In addition, some parts of a scene were left out, and additional material was added.

• It became a challenge to keep the story focused on the main characters and not digress into details about superfluous characters and scenarios.

• Having to think about conventions and writing techniques was taking the joy out of the writing process for everyone but Denise and me, the two writing perfectionists 😳

The Solution

It took a couple of weeks for emotions to subside and suggestions to emerge as to how the issue could be addressed, so everybody started to enjoy the process again. We came up with the following approach:

• At the weekly meetings we would have a brainstorm about the next scene/scenario. Everyone would give input and Denise would take notes of key ideas.

• Each member present would then write up their own story about whichever part of the scene that resonated the most with them, and email it through to everyone else.

• Denise would then do her Developmental Edit, and include what she herself had written. She would then send the draft on to me.

• I would do my Copy Editing and initial proofreading, possibly adding or subtracting text in parts and ensure the final draft read in ‘one voice’.

• We would then read the edited scene at the next meeting and wash and repeat.

The Outcome

• Everyone was happy to have ‘performance pressure’ lifted ☺️

• Everyone felt free to write what inspired them.

• Everyone was happy for Denise and I to write up the story and to recognise where they had had input, without the final text being exactly as they had written it.

The Irony

After reaching the above agreements and peace being restored to the group, there was a brainstorm of the next scene and a brief discussion of the scene after that.

Tess came up with a brilliant suggestion for the second scene, wrote it up the next morning at 3 am and sent it through to us all.

Michelle wrote up her version of the next scene and emailed it through.

Both were absolutely fabulous and will go into the story virtually unchanged 😂

In Conclusion

This is what happens when 60s-plus writers get together and prioritise group process as much as group outcome 😉

Love to get your comments!