How Writing Changes in a Group
Posted on 04. May, 2010 by joanna in Writing
I got an email the other day asking whether a few days away would really make a difference to the writing experience.
The short answer was ‘yes’ but the longer answer got me thinking harder about how and why writing retreats change things.
I think it’s to do with the way writing changes when you’re in a group.
We tend to think of writing as a solitary activity.
Part of the benefit of a writing retreat is that you get the time and the space to write, on your own, without distraction.
But that’s only part of the story. The other bit is the way your writing changes when you’re writing (reading, thinking, testing, learning, experimenting) with others too.
You find that your words change with:
Permission: Other people can give you permission, even quietly and subconsciously, to stretch beyond your normal comfort zones. This is particularly true with people you didn’t know before. Old labels and ways of thinking about yourself get left behind.
Encouragement: Other people encourage you. Give you courage. There’s also an odd thing, that as you encourage others (as you undoubtedly will) that voice of support encourages you too.
Feedback: You learn from the feedback you get from others. When it comes with good intention it helps to strengthen your writing.
Experiments: You get ideas from other people: new things to try, new approaches to experiment with, new voices to write in. It’s an invitation to stretch and experiment.
Stories: You get ideas and inspiration from other people’s stories (the one’s they’re writing, or the one’s they’re living.) That can help to wake you up or see things from a different perspective, to notice new angles. At some level this helps you see the ways all our stories are inter-connected, which gives you more confidence to tell them.
Humour: The sharing of words leads to laughter, and countless moments of shared humour. (I’m not quite sure why this is: anyone?) It can help to lighten you up, and lighten up your writing.
Recognition: Although writing is often done alone, it is written to be read. You feed off and grow through the act of sharing those words, and seeing other people’s recognition of one small part of who you are, and how things have been.
Energy: Writing with other people changes the dynamic. It can give you more energy, it can add more energy to your writing, to the way your words dance on the page.
I’m not sure I’ve found the right words to describe how this works, and I’d love to hear about your own experiences. How have you found that writing changes in a group?
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The next writing retreat I’m running is the Tell Your Story Women’s Writing Retreat, June 14 – 18, in Fife (on the East Coast of Scotland, near St Andrews). Just a couple of places left: book quickly if you want to be there 
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