How do I find a writing group and what if they’re mean?

That’s a question we get asked a lot, and we always encourage writers to reach out in our Facebook group or boldly throw it out there anywhere else online that you hang out and see what happens. You don’t even have to trade pages to be a writing group. You look for the kind of support and camaraderie you need.

But if you’ve ever thought of hying yourself off to your local version of Grub Street or our local spot for in-person writer-ness, The Writer’s Center to find your people—or possibly starting an in-person writer-connection-thing of your own, then you’ll want to listen to my conversation with Joni Cole, founder of said Writer’s Center and the author of Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive—which is just freshly out in a revised version, which is why we’re bringing this convo back to you now! This new version has half a dozen new chapters, plus new interviews with famous authors who share their own feedback stories--from the inspiring to the deranged. The new chapters cover issues such as:

-- how to overcome imposter syndrome; 

-- how to catch yourself when you're resisting feedback that you really need to hear; 

-- how to receive and offer feedback on particularly difficult or delicate story material;

-- and one whopper of a story on how to negotiate with your publisher when you absolutely hate their proposed cover of your book (See chapter entitled "Fifty Shades of Writing"). 

Joni is also the author of Good Naked, and the This Day series, which collects diary entries from women all across the United States on a single day, and the host of the podcast Author, Can I Ask You. Joni and I talk starting writing groups, running them, keeping it positive and making sure you don’t lose your own work in the process of helping others.

Links from the pod

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway

The Place Between Breaths by An Na

#AmReading

Joni: Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch

American Dialogue by Joseph J. Ellis

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Craft in the Real World by Matthew Salesses

(KJ and Jennie discussed Craft in the Real World in Episode 275: Writing While White (or otherwise part of the historically dominant paradigm))

KJ: Writing the Romantic Comedy by Billy Mernit

Find Joni: jonibcole.com

The Writer’s Center in White River Junction, VT

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Trying to find your TikTok Groove (or just looking for more happily-ever-afters for your TBR)? Make sure you check out Sarina’s TikTok

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