When I first joined the Headwaters Writers’ Guild there were six members who met every other Sunday to write from prompts and share their writing with each other. That was six years ago. Now we have a name, have expanded to approximately 20 listed members (we can usually count on 8-10 members per meeting), we have set up a website, a blog and even our own Amazon store. A small percentage of purchases made through the store is deposited into our bank account. The bank account also consists of money voluntarily contributed by members at each meeting. Instead of taking up collections for flowers when someone dies, or Christmas gifts for the Webmistress and the Secretary, we just take the money from our group’s bank account.

At our bi-monthly meetings we share our writing, write from prompts for a given time limit, and then share that writing. We try to keep feedback positive so as not to discourage the writers. This can be serious but in our case it is mostly fun. I have made some great friends in the group, and I have learned a lot.

For more in depth critiquing we ask other members to read our work on their own time. Family members and non-writer friends can’t be objective and honest. Today I emailed one of our members regarding a problem I was having lengthening my 53,000-word novel. A published author had asked me what my sub-plot was. It never occurred to me to have a sub-plot. I have been trying to fit in a sub-plot without changing the end result of the story. The member emailed me back with a bunch of suggestions without having read the novel. She had heard me read snippets of it at group but that was awhile back. I didn’t think any of her suggestions were going to work but I mulled them over for a bit. One jumped out at me and I continued to think about it. A great idea came to me and I emailed my friend back. She was pleased that our brainstorming via email had come up with some positive results. So was I.

Because we are supportive of one another and hope each of us succeeds, we share information on books, articles, publishers, contests, author seminars and writing workshops. We now do all this on our blog, which can be found at www.headwaterswritersguild.blogspot.com. We use our website to promote our group, our writing and our writers. It can be found at www.owg.netfirms.com.

Currently the Headwaters Writers’ Guild has sponsored 4 one-day writing workshops. We make the arrangements for the instructor (an editor and teacher), open it up to the public, and members of the group get a discounted rate. We had a six session short story workshop in my home. We have met published award-winning authors for critiquing, and even had a Q&A session via Skype with author Saralee Rosenberg. We plan to do this again. We also have a day long retreat every Spring at a retreat centre where nature nurtures our muse. Some day we hope to have events for the town and surrounding areas like The Spoken Word for poetry, and Word on the Street for authors and publishers.

The HWG is a lively group of writers who write in a variety of genres. In exposing ourselves to other writers we are motivated to try new things as well as complete our work and achieve success. We encourage each other to submit our stories and poems to publications and contests. I personally have attended the book launches of three of our six published authors. Writers support writers. Joining a writing group is the best place to receive that kind of support.