Writers Groups - Focus Group

 Writers groups come in a variety of sizes and focuses.  I am a member of the Florida Writers Association (FWA) which boasts over 1000 writers.  Obviously we meet on a much smaller scale.  The group meeting I attend most often is the Ancient City Chapter of FWA in St. Augustine, Florida.  Meeting attendance there runs from forty to around one hundred depending on who's speaking and what topic he or she is speaking on.

I am also a charter member of the Professional Writers of St. Augustine, a group form over six years ago.  This group usually has from five to fifteen writers in attendance at each meeting. 

Both of those groups have different focuses.  The FWA group brings in top notch speakers to reveal the writing life to us in its many different facets.  The FWA group also offers a separate crtique group.  The Professional Writers group offers one hour of critique and one hour of marketing, promotion and publishing discussion.

I found that while the two larger groups supplied me with loads of information, I needed an outlet for all the knowledge piling up in my brain.  I also needed a 'team' of writers devoted to the craft and serious about moving forward.  Let's face it - millions of people claim the desire to write, few actually put the time, effort and money into writing to make it happen.

This focus group, the Rogues Gallery Writers as we call ourselves, melded together over a couple years time.  When we first formed, we were six.  A couple of our original members were not interested in the more serious side of writing which involves marketing, promotion, business and publishing.  The core group, the Rogues Gallery Writers, is now moving forward with vision and strength.

This did not happen by itself.  Meshing personalities into a focus writers group is as important as determining the seriousness level in each writer.  There are many ideas on what makes up a good focus group - we opted for diversity.  We have an artist, Tracy McDurmon, who dabbles in poetry.  Her passion is paints and she has added a very mystical element to our group.

We have Jeff Swesky, who leans heavily to dark, bloody writing - even Goth - yet he'll surprise you with something soft and tender every now and then.  Rebekah is our most polished writer, an English major graduate from Florida State University.  Her use of metaphor is fresh and often astounding.  I write with my heart and aspire to write science fiction.

This diversity works well with us.  A focus group could be solely devoted to one genre.  One of the reasons we feel our group dynamic works well is that writers today need the ability to be diverse.  By having the mix we do, we can help each other whenever we write outside our comfort zone.

One of the huge advantages to a focus group comes in learning and applying the marketing and promoting you have to do in this business.  You can listen to speakers all you want, and even have discussions about marketing and promoting, but if you are not getting hands on experience, you are fooling yourself.

The four of us have learned how to set up websites, blogs, write for article depositories, start a publishing company, write and read contracts, plan marketing strategies and implement them, discussed promotional plans, create offshoot products from our writing and sell them and many other critical aspects of the writing life.

We still have a long way to go.  There are at least four books springing forth from our group, the Rogues Gallery Writers in the next six months.  Logistically this calls for many hours of devotion to making things happen.  We will be pressed to make sure our goals and plans are concrete and workable.

When you decide to commit yourself to a writer's life, you learn there are constants - you must constantly be writing; constantly be updating you websites; constantly blogging; constantly promoting your work; constantly marketing yourself and constantly carving out time for other things like life.  This is to say nothing of the other social networking you must do to create a name (brand) for yourself.

Blogging is the simplest handle.  Blogs must be posted on a regular, consistent basis.  If you choose to blog twice a week (recommended), that means you'll typically blog eight times a month for each blog you write.  I write four blogs that post each Monday.  That means in a month's time I write sixteen blogs - but I do it all in one day.  My blog day comes at the beginning of each month.  I write my sixteen blogs, schedule them to post, one each Monday for each blog, and I'm done.

The Rogues Gallery Writers help out on a fifth blog.  It is set up so that each Rogue can post to the blog through an email post where the subject line of the email is the blog title, and the email body is the blog content.  This way we keep fresh content flowing in our Rogues Gallery Writers blog.

As a group, we plan out ways to market ourselves as Rogues as well as how to market ourselves as individual authors.  Jeff has an award winning unpublished (as yet) autobiography.  Rebekah has a fun little book titled Motherhood is Easy about in the editing and production stages of publishing.  The Rogues have a book in the editing/production stage, Writing is Easy due out in early 2010.  We need each other to not only bounce around ideas but to support each other as we wade through the processes of getting published.

A focus writers group serves to make the trials of writing and publishing easier to experience.  One of our favorite ways to lighten up a meeting is to play the 'Ask the Oracle' game.  A simple writing game for children, the Oracle can be loads of light-hearted fun for adults.  Each person writes a question on a piece of notebook paper, then passes it left.  Then, each person writes an answer to the question.  Then the original question is folded backward so the only thing showing is the answer.  After passing left again, each person writes a question to the exposed answer.  Fold the answer backward so only the question is showing, pass left, then each person answers the new question.  Repeat this process until the paper is full.  Sometimes we even go to the other side of the paper and continue.  You must end the exercise with an answer.

Once we call a halt to the process, the papers are returned to the original owner.  In turn, each person reads their very first question, then the very last answer.  Often, this question and answer are hilarious.  What is ALWAY hilarious is the thread of what got you there, so after reading the first question and last answer, you then read the entire paper beginning to end.  The more adult and imaginative and free-wheeling you allow yourself to be in this little writer's game, the more fun it is.  We've ended many a Rogues meeting laughing so hard it hurts.

Writers need that kind of interaction.  This is nearly impossible in large numbers.  When you form a small focus group, you become a tight-knit family.  I highly recommend a focus group if you are committing yourself to writing.

Remember, find writers serious about their writing career.  They don't have to be published, they just have to show the drive and determination to move forward no matter the cost in time, effort or dollars.  You must decide whether to be diverse in your scope of writers or niched like sci-fi or romance, etc.  You must find personalities that work well together.  You don't want everyone sporting the same personality.  Here is where management skills come in very handy.  If you know how to get people to work well together, you are on your way.  Someone in the group must have this talent. 

Once you assemble, you must hash out goals and steps to get there.  This can change.  One of the reasons you have a group this small is to allow it to be fluid.  As our publishing market changes (which is currently happening on a near daily basis), your group needs to be able to address these changes.  No one person has the time to keep up with everything, but a small focus group can do a better job by assigning members to look into different areas so as not to duplicate effort.

As one person learns something new and applies the knowledge, so the group learns and applies.  Here is where a focus writers group pays huge dividends.  By sharing the knowledge, the how to and the results, each individual member can apply this information to their personal writing quest.

I've only scratched the surface of what is available to you as an author in a focus group.  This is not for beginners.  New authors should learn the basic business of writing.  Once you get past the fantasy that once you write your book it will sell itself and you become aware that the physical and creative act of writing the book is only ten percent of the work, then you may be ready for a focus group.

Once in a group like this, you must take it seriously.  You must go above and beyond what is expected.  You must stretch yourself for the group's good.  By doing so, you will be furthering your own career.  The Rogues Gallery Writers are currently developing a website to help committed writers (and I mean that in the most positive connotation available) get their group up and running and moving forward.  By late winter 2010 or early spring, the website www.openaveinonline.com should be available for focus writers groups to communicate through a forum styled site. 

Find your writers.  Start up your group.  Get proactive and get your writing career moving.  Focus writers groups are a tremendous vehicle individually and collectively.