You Asked: How to Start an Online Writers Group?

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author

Welcome to another, belated, You Asked, the Experts Answer, segment. This week’s question: How do you start an online writer’s group?

I’ve been a member of the South Carolina’s Writer’s Group, which met monthly at our local library, but haven’t participated in an online group before and I’ve certainly never thought about starting one – until now. So, what does it take to start a group?

Where to Begin:

  1. Establish your goals -What do you want to offer or accomplish with your members? Is the group a support network, forum for learning, an opportunity to share, or provide critiques of each other’s work?
  2. Determine membership -Is the membership voluntary or fee based? Is it open to experienced, emerging, or writers at all levels? Will membership be limited or open to all?
  3. Member participation –  How will you recruit or encourage member participation? Offer live or Twitter chats, tutorials, or run contest? Do you want to require weekly or monthly check-ins and forum discussions or leave it up to the member?
  4.  Identify the Roles of the Host(s)– Is this your brainchild or a joint venture. If a joint venture, designate responsibilities up front- maintaining membership rosters and participation, as well as, administrative duties and who will address technical issues that might arise.
  5. Create a venue – A private blog through WordPress or Blogger is an easy way for members to ask questions or hold discussions. Private forums on Google Groups and Yahoo Groups is another option. These are particularly useful when sharing files.
  6. Dedicate the Time – This is a biggy. It takes a lot of time to build members and relationships. A good place to start is to have each member introduce themselves, including their level of experience as a writer, and what they hope to gain from the group.

Understand an online group requires commitment and continuous engagement. Setting weekly goals or making a to-do list will help you keep on task. Establishing a regular schedule and dedicating time specifically for the group will create the right environment for a successful online group. Interested in more information?

Check Out These Resources:

What about you? Do you belong to an online writer’s group? Have you found it helpful? Interesting is starting a group?  I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story and look for me on Facebook at SheilaMGood,  Pinterest,  Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilamgood, Contently, and Instagram.

25 thoughts on “You Asked: How to Start an Online Writers Group?”

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  3. We have a platform where beginning writers may offer their trials and present articles on family related matters.
    We want to want to offer positive thoughts which can help others in life and want to accomplish with our members that people are confronted with different ways of thinking and can find enough stories and different writing styles to lift them up and to get to know different authors.

    Most of all we could need some poets, bringing this most neglected art form in the picture again.

    To inspire each other and to discuss the way of writing face-to-face meetings seem necessary. But there the different articles or poems present on different sites may be spoken off and looked at. Therefore publications are a necessary asset to be able to discuss the texts and to see how the public react.

    Also important for others to get some inspiration and to compare the writing-styles is being able to find different authors their texts from all over the world. that’s we we also would love to find some more authors from different countries at our site.

    Writers also should help the public to find interesting articles and bring some more views to those authors who write about interesting subjects. For that reason they should also help to build up a readers digest.

    Those interested are always welcome to contribute with own material and with presenting material from others, at From Guestwriters.

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  5. I used to belong to an online teen writing group…but then I grew out of being a teen. XD Saaaaadness. I never did replace it, but I’m okay with being a bit of a loner writer and just chatting to my other author friends on twitter or blogs. BUT STILL! I think groups are quite awesome, though they’d take a lot of work to set up and run, right?!
    Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!

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    • I’ve yet to start one but have thought about it – thus, the post. However, in doing my research, the time component seemed overwhelming. Not sure I would do the group justice – yet. I can barely keep up with my blog and writing at times. Thanks for stopping by and joining the conversation. I love your blog and look forward to reading more of your thoughts.

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  8. I have often thought about it. I have also thought about joining a local writer’s group. I also have thought about creating a cyborg clone to do all the things for me that I don’t want to do. So far, I have done none of those things…but there is always tomorrow

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