How a writing group can help develop skills

I’ve been a member of my local writing group, Anderida Writers, for over a decade. I’d recommend anyone who wants to develop their writing skills to join a club or group and share their work and experiences with other writers.

Typically, a writing group will hold workshops and bring in expert speakers such as editors, agents and creative writing tutors. Members will normally share their work with colleagues (the very act of reading your own work aloud is itself an invaluable learning opportunity). Feedback from other writers is also a great help whether it be praise for what you’ve written or suggestions for improvement. Critiquing the work of group members gives the listener an opportunity to hear how a writer with different skills has constructed a piece of prose or poetry. And most groups boast an eclectic mix of writers, working in different forms and genres.

In Anderida Writers we have many published authors, not least our Patron, Tamara McKinley, who as Ellie Dean writes the highly successful Cliffehaven series. Other published members include Heather Flood, Tony Flood, Alex Hudson, John Newton, John Silverton and Francis Wait. Their work spans a wide range of tastes and can be found via the Anderida Writers website:

https://www.anderidawriterseastbourne.org.uk

And if you find there’s not a writing group nearby, you could check for one that meets virtually. Failing that, why not start one yourself?

Where would we be without readers

I can’t tell you how helpful it was to have readers who were prepared to read through my novel and provide constructive feedback. They picked up inconsistencies of place or date, tone-jars, wise-cracks placed in the mouth of an inappropriate character, repetition and repetition.

It can be difficult to spot errors

It’s difficult as a writer to spot certain errors, even though one might read and re-read a passage of fresh writing. Think the missing speech mark or, my celebrated failing; the over-use of the semi-colon. I very much hope to have the opportunity to name these narrative-cleaning and grammarian readers in the acknowledgment page of my novel when it’s published. Did I mention that they often pick me up for over-optimism?

Why we love a baddie

Antics of an anti-hero

The trusted readers who worked their way through the manuscript of my newly completed novel were consistent in their response to the antics of my anti-hero. He’s outrageous, despicable, super-devious and egocentric, they told me. So it was interesting to consider why they were always rooting for him.

The anti-hero is rarely a figure that engenders feelings of hate alone. Most draw from the reader or viewer much more complex emotions. Perhaps he or she is to be pitied, or grudgingly admired for their daring or for the odd honourable deed scattered among their many misdeeds. Then we must ask whether the anti-hero only ever does good to further his or her dark ambitions. Is the saving of the child’s life, the retrieval of the bed-bound grandma from the burning building or the sparing of the wounded assassin ever a matter of simple honour? Sometimes. But the motive of currying favour must always be suspected because moral ambiguity is immensely attractive in a protagonist. Think Dorian Gray, Tom Ripley or Pinkie Brown and in film Michael Corleone, Léon or one of my personal favourites, Charley Varrick.

I hope my own anti-hero, Will, might one day draw a complex range of reactions from an expanded readership. Fingers crossed.