Setting Up a Writers' Circle
by Jo Parfitt

The objective of the group:

To support and encourage new writers by providing a forum where they can read out work in progress, be inspired by others' work and learn new skills.

First things first:

Identify a group of people who would benefit from a writers' circle in your location. This can be achieved by making a simple notice and posting it in supermarkets, libraries, arts centres, schools and in other places where writers may be hiding. Ask your local paper to put in a notice too that you are trying to start a group, they will usually be supportive.

Make sure the notice says where and when meetings will be held and if there will be any entrance charge. I have set up circles in Dubai, Muscat and Stavanger, and each time meetings were held once a fortnight from 7.30 to 10.00 pm, in members' homes on a rota basis. Don't forget to put your phone number on the notice.

As soon as you have three or more people who are interested you can have your first meeting.

The first meeting:

Ask everyone to introduce themselves and talk about the stage they are at with their writing. Some may have already been published, others may not. Find out who has more experience and may be relied on to give constructive criticism. Ascertain who will be willing to host meetings in their home and set up a rota. After the meeting you can type up a schedule for future meetings that show everyone's name, address and telephone number. Distribute these to everyone who came along and keep some in reserve for new people in the future.

Meeting plan:

All groups work out a method that works best for their members. The following method has worked extremely well for me:

Allow everyone to have a chat for a few minutes over a cup of coffee.

Loosening Up - Free writing:

The meeting host should now set a topic for 10 minutes of free writing, or speed writing. Everyone must have pen and paper to hand and be prepared to let their thoughts run free, never stopping as they cover the pages with whatever pops into their heads.

Topics could be:

After the free writing everyone can take turns to read out what they have written. Often there will be nuggets that could be turned into articles, essays, poems or short stories. Concentrate on finding the good bits. Comment for just a few minutes. Remember this writing is stream of consciousness work and should not be judged as harshly as prepared work.

Individual Work:

Next, count the number of people who have brought something to read out to the group and divide that number into the time remaining. Allow the resulting time for each member to read and receive comments from the group. Be strict with this otherwise some members will get left out.

When you comment on someone's work try to be constructive. Mention the bits you liked, the places where you felt you needed more information, and then make suggestions on how the less successful sections could be improved. Suggest possible markets for pieces nearing completion.

At the end of the meeting, the person who is scheduled to host the next meeting should set a task for everyone to try and complete for the next meeting. It is these exercises which can be used during the Individual Work section of the next meeting.

Subsequent meetings:

The host will provide the coffee or drinks.

The host will suggest the topic for the free writing and organise to time it.

Members read out work prepared since the last session. It can be the result of the task set by this meeting's host or something else. They can even use this time to discuss another aspect of their writing.

The host for the next meeting suggests the topic for the Individual Work for the next meeting