What would put you off from joining/staying with a writing group?

[jongibbs]

I’ve been thinking about what makes people leave a writing group. They all have something to offer, so why do some thrive while others struggle to attract/ retain members?

Over the years, I’ve heard a fair number of reasons for people leaving/not joining a writing group. I’ve listed some of the more common ones below, if you have a minute, I’d love

Comments

[darkspires]

A group should be about equal opportunity and one of the small ones I was in did not have this. I was doing a lot of reviews and getting very few in return, usually months after I had finished working on that chapter.

[jongibbs]

Good point, Elizabeth. Every group seems to have a few folks more interested in taking than giving.

Thanks for the input :)

[calli_scribbles]

Oh, I hate those communities. I mean, I don't mind getting only a couple of comments per chapter, but I hate the ones where nobody reads anything anyone else posts except for a really, really tiny clique of people who only comment on each other's stuff. (That, and the piddly and rather superficial prompts, have led me to stop following charloft, for example.)

[ex_naomi_ja]

I think you need an "all of the above" option!

[readthisandweep]

THIS! Pretty much.

[jongibbs]

That would have been too easy :P

[queenoftheskies]

Is there an "all of the above" option? That's where my vote lies.

[jongibbs]

Thanks, Janice :)

[mutive]

Yeah, all of the above.

A big one too is if I feel like I'm getting something useful out of it. There are some amazing writing groups online. If one in person didn't provide *at least* as much as one online did, I'd probably avoid it as just...why?

[jongibbs]

I have to say, I get a terrific buzz from the atmosphere at in-person groups :)

[j_cheney]

Not being made to feel welcome: This one happened to me. I decided I would rather drive 4 hours to a Texas group than hang with people who woun't bother to greet me...

Something Else:
Not a good match. We had a small local spec-fic group. It wasn't a bad group, it just wasn't a good match. I was the only female, and the others wrote things vastly different from what I wrote...so we didn't really click.

[jongibbs]

'Not being made to feel welcome'

It's such a shame when this happens, because it's so easily avoidable, don't you think?

[calli_scribbles]

Yes, yes it is. I sat my board down (I started a club for it at my college) at our first meeting and told them "we can't loose any people or generes, there's only about ten members. So we're fully appreciating these people, even if one or more of us thinks that they suck." Honestly, almost all our leavers have left because of issues with schedule or the fact that, at the beginning, we only had one guy.