Mississauga Writers Group
March 2015
Heart to Heart
On the Value of Membership:
A brief look at the benefits of joining
a Writer’s Group
Writing is a lonely occupation; any writer will confirm this.
Now, not all writers are social creatures, or even crave the
company and/or the attention of others. For them, sitting
alone in an out-of-the-way place to scribble down their
thoughts onto a page, or click their way to happiness in
front of a computer is all that they could ever want. For the
rest of us “ink monkeys”, however, a pleasant respite with
like-minded individuals is always a welcome diversion
from the grind of dredging words from our subconscious.
How then to do this? Where are we to turn?
Personally, I find that individuals that do not share the
same interest or passion for the written word, whether they
are family, friends, or the public usually want only very
short “sound bites” from you when they ask how your
writing is going. Anything more than short answers and I
begin to see my listener’s eyes glaze over and restiveness in
their posture that suggests a desire to change the subject.
Well, where is one to turn when one needs to come out of
seclusion and craves a “sympathetic ear”. Why, one joins a
writer’s group - of course!
I wrote creatively while in university and then put it aside
for almost twenty years before deciding, in 2006, to start
again by beginning my first novel. Back then, and during
the subsequent years, until my first book’s publication in
2011, I never considered myself an author - only a writer.
Beset with the problems that every writer has (confidence
issues, writer’s block, procrastination problems, etc.), and
faced
with
a
disintegrating
friendship/writing
By: Hans Victor von
Maltzahn
Author of the Black S