There are two schools of thoughts on writer’s groups – one says you should make sure you’re part of one, the other says not to.
The group that says not to uses argument by analogy to argue. You wouldn’t after all find a group of untrained brain surgeons participating in talks on techniques for brain surgery, and then every now and then actually operating without knowing how to do it.
However, that’s bad analogy. you could also say you wouldn’t find a brain surgeon that read a lot of books on it, and then tried it without talking with others who’ve done it first. Or learn by cutting open someone’s head and poking at it, trying to figure how to operate on a brain.
Whether to join a writer’s group or not is up to you – purely your decision.
I’m a part of the Christian Writer’s Group. The benefits to a writer’s group is being able to learn, and to help others. Because very often, teaching someone else is the best way to teach yourself.
Like social media, you have to set deadlines. I’m not going to go onto the writers’ group except on my scheduled time. I will spend no more than fifteen minutes there. If I have nothing to say today, don’t. Several members of the writer’s group I’m part of make comments about how they spend a lot of time there instead of writing. That’s a mistake. Like social media, anything that takes away from your scheduled time to write (HUGE hint there) is to be avoided.
You have to have a social media presence if you’re going to be a professional writer – there’s no getting around that. And being part of an online writer’s group is helpful (I won’t say crucial) to your development as a writer. You may learn just by seeing someone else’s writing for critique. And you may get bold enough to put one of your chapters up for critique. caution – it stings. But understand its far better to hear “You’re boring me” from a fellow writer before you hear it from an agent or publisher.
There is a caveat – if the person who’s adding critique knows nothing about writing, take the critique with a very large grain of salt.
There’s an additional problem that if the writer’s group is populated by amateurs, you may be reinforcing bad writing skills by being a part of it. This is a risk you do run! Make sure there’s some writers there who’ve been writing for years.
Conclusion
There are pluses and minuses to being part of an online writing group. you have to weigh the benefits, and decide for yourself whether it’s for you.
