Writing Support Group

Themes Emerging

From fall '09

• Writing support groups need to be free from any hierarchical relations, which means that while participants might use them to work on completing overdue work, that needs to be a voluntary choice and any instructor-student relationship around the overdue work needs to happen outside the group.
• Being able to rely on a consistent meeting allows serendipitous connections and sharing to happen among participants, which reduces the need for a pre-planned "syllabus" or sequence of topics.
• Coming each week allows participants to set concrete, achievable goals and not to lose sight of their writing among the rest of their work-life commitments.
• The writing support group is a way of creating a culture of writing. It addresses the social and affective dimensions of writing.
• Practicing different ways of observing and responding to the writing of peers can lead beyond judgement (by oneself and others).
• It is OK if not much writing gets done during the group meetings because the discussions (especially getting to peek at the interior lives of others) help push back against isolation and create a valuable sense of support when you do make clear time to write.
• Given that we work best with great passion and intensity, a writing support group sometimes needs to be an emotional place, opening up our greatest intensity and serving some personal therapeutic value. The ink on paper may then flow with a passion that follows not only our heart, but also our fluid speaking style, whether it be screaming in frustration one week or walking on clouds with delight the next. In this way we might find our voice, as Peter Elbow refers. (MJ)
• A group allows us to see what other people write and how they write. It's the compare/contrast, being around variety of thinking, ideas and writing styles. Makes it less lonely. (CC)
• Writing is more than generating words. In some ways it is a decision-making process that builds on reading, assessing, reflecting, imagining, remembering. In this light, when we assess how we spend time on writing, all of these aspects "count." (EO)
• The consistent meeting time also validates the commitment we're making, given that there's so much pulling us away. The group is taking a stand that the writing process and products matter—ultimately writers and readers count! (EO)

more themes

• Writing buddies outside of the support group provided valuable feedback and nudging, (for example I have one who is a lawyer and provides me socratic dialogue and pushback in exchange for my analytic interpretation of his work and research; others in our group have buddies who provide mutual feedback on ideas and papers, as well as gentle reminders like "how's your writing coming along" and "what are you currently writing about"). (MJ)
• Our group time is a time I can count on as a breather and getaway from work and school, when I know I can meet regularly and frequently, write freely on whatever is on my mind at the time, and often get to hear back a general or specific message on what I said about my writing, either as I hear myself say it, ponder on it afterward or get response later from someone in the group. (MJ)
• need to get clear what kind or SUPPORT we need or that is meaningful. (Understanding that people can give what they can give and not what they can't , e.g., ideas, simple company, proof reading, reading response, logistical, bibliographical copy editing, structural stuff, recognition (which may be needed to do what is hard for us), appreciation of the "lesser" writing we're doing (which may help us to write and write much more clearly every day), connectedness, and more. (CC)

Fall '10

Tid-bits from Fall 2010 Writing Support Group:


We tried and found value in the concept of ‘Writing to outline, instead of outlining to write’
· Writing toward the end of a project can bring focus and closure, especially when things seem too broad and hazy
· Sharing good writing is “like the fun of show & tell” -Jeremy
· Writing has depth to it and texture “like the warp and weft of woven fabric” – Mary Lou
· Writing is “playful decision making” – Jeremy
· Like painting, “free writing allows a blank canvas to express thoughts, feelings, ideas” – Mike
· Writing times and atmospheres can help to define how times and phases of a day or project can begin, close and get over humps. For example: Morning pages writing at the start of the day can loosen up the thinking muscles, while reflective writing at the end of the day can wrap up loose ends and gel themes that may have emerged, but might not otherwise be captured. Free writing at any time can be very helpful at loosening linguistic cramps, clearing the cobwebs and ‘getting out the junk’
· Writing is loose and at ease - part of a daily ritual - Mike
· We used writing as dialogue during one session and it led to:
o Scribbling on a wall – Mary Lou
o Using PowerPoint with one word-thought on each slide
o Write to let things develop (emerge) – Jeremy
o Writing was fun, kids play
o Writing group had the complex simplicity of ‘Structure vs. Freedom’, which don’t have to be mutually exclusive
o Guidelines for dialogue are good guidelines for life – Jeremy
o Permission to yourself to do something fun – ‘all work and no play…’
· There seems to be an important relationship between speaking and writing (Peter Elbow and others refer to this as finding or using ‘voice’). In Writing with Power, Peter Elbow says “we are usually influenced by people we carry around in our heads” p. 186, and “the audience in our head usually affects us more when we write than when we speak p. 187. On the same page Elbow says an audience we perceive or anticipate as dangerous may “lead you into a protective voice…drains your language of power”.
On p. 340 Elbow encourages writers – if you want the reader to experience your thinking…feel your thoughts…hear the music of your ideas-then you must experience your thoughts fully as you write.

Spring '10

Meets face2face Tuesdays 5.30-7.30 in W-2-157 (provisional)
Meets by conference call at some other time?
Email szteiter@gmail.com to be included in email list for updates on the support group

Session at Teaching for Transformation Conference, 22 Jan 2010

Notes from previous semesters

Fall '09