“Hi my name is Abha and I’m a writer,” is what I said when I walked into my first writer group meeting.
Not to sure what I would get from it, I decided to go anyway. I was lacking inspiration and didn’t have anyone to brag to, so thought I’d see how other writers were managing themselves.
It was the best decision I made in a long time. To have access to a group of published and trying-to-get-published writers did great to my moral. I met travel-writers, novelists, comic book writers, news-reporters, script-writers, short-story writers, journalists, just-feel-like-writing-but-haven’t-yet writers, every type really. Young, old, very-old, American, Danish, English, Spanish, African, South African, Canadian – a really interesting multicultural group actually.
We meet once a week at a super cool cafe in the centre of Madrid where we talk, drink, share experiences, get inspiration, share contacts and critic each other’s writing.
When you hear that all the published writers there, write atleast 1000 words a day, it makes you kick yourself and go yikes that’s what I need to do. When I decided to give the group a piece of mine to read, whilst looking through whatever I have written, I didn’t feel comfortable sharing anything, it all seemed like crap. But then I thought:’this is my writing’, let me see what other professionals think – they might rape it, but atleast I will get some feedback I might be able to improve from.
We also get notified on when famous/semi-famous writers are visiting Madrid, and sometimes get discounts on book fairs and other literary events.
So yeah, open the yellow pages and find a writers group, you won’t regret it.
There is a little writer\’s group here in Marrakech, too. They tend to be rather literary though. But still great inspiration.