Recently the idea of starting a writing group/club at my school for my grade 12 year has been circling around in my mind, and I decided that since I have done all this research on ideas of what we could do each meeting, it would be selfish not to share some of these ideas with you! Anyways, if you are thinking of starting a writing group, here are some ideas and I hope they help 🙂

• Write-Ins – We all have busy lives that sometimes get in the way of writing so write-in days are super valuable. Maybe once a month your writing group could devote a meeting to simply working on their own individual projects. Just having other writers around, working on their projects, will help motivate so many people that everyone will walk away feeling productive and inspired to write.
• Critiquing – Another valuable use of a meeting could be devoted to critiquing other people’s works. You can get into groups or pairs, or if you don’t feel comfortable having someone read your work, then you don’t have to participate at all. A lot of writers will want to though, and will be so happy to get a free critique from a fellow writer.
• Circle Chats – This is an idea that tries to get the whole group involved in discussing some topic related to writing. It may be the topic of writer’s block, finding the motivation to keep writing, or finding your voice…whatever it is, have everyone pitch in one tip or idea just to spread the knowledge and experience!
• Prompt Days – For this idea, basically all you need is to come up with one (or a few) prompts. Write them up on a board or give everyone a piece of paper with it on, and then have everyone write a piece based off that prompt. It will help get the creative juices flowing and if anyone feels comfortable, they can share what they wrote afterwards!
• Show and Tell – This is pretty self-explanatory, but have a mini open mic session! If anyone wants to share some work, devote a chunk of the meeting for people who want to share their stories. This is always a lot of fun and always makes me inspired to write.
• Guests – Maybe you are able to get in a creative writing teacher, or a local author. If so, that would be amazing and add so much to your meetings! I really recommend doing some research and reaching out to some fellow creative people to see who would be interested.
• Craft Book Club – By this, I mean instead of having a book club where you read fiction books, choose to read a book on the craft of writing instead. Something easily accessible for everyone or that a lot of people already own. Give a time period to read it and then sit down and discuss all the valuable nuggets of information you all discovered and how you plan to apply it to your writing.

Those are a few of the ideas I found or came up with while thinking about my own writing group. Remember, if your town/city doesn’t have a writing group and you want to be in one, create your own! It may seem daunting at first, but it will be worth it in the end! Don’t forget to check out my last blog post linked down below, as well as follow my social media accounts for more bookish and writing related fun 🙂

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