I could be going to a writing group in Glasgow tonight, but I'm not going to. Why not? At this stage writing groups are not for me. I'm trying to get published and I don't feel that a writing group is much help with this. It's a hard slog, trying to get published, and sooner or later I may have to go down the self-publication route. I don't think I can get anything from a writing group that helps me to do that, other than some of the good and useful advice I've already had at early meetings.
Some of the speakers have been great and very useful, but I think at this stage in my journey I have become, and have to become, quite selfish, and focused on my own needs. I wouldn't for a moment say that I can't learn things about the process of writing itself, but that's not the kind of group this is. And I would venture to suggest I am my own worst and best critic. I have friends who read what I write, and I bounce off them, but in the end I know a lot of what's wrong, and what's right with what I produce. If I didn't believe that I don't think I would be doing this at all. Of course I would love to get editorial opinion on my writing, and I do and would edit my work, heavily. But in the end you need self-belief, don't you?
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