Group Therapy

You usually hear about how writing is a solitary occupation. And that's true in a lot of ways. No one else can write your story for you. No one else can really weave everything together or tell it in your individual voice. It takes you and your computer or notebook, and a whole lot of time in the chair. Or the couch, in my case.

But there are times when being a writer brings you together with other writers in really cool ways. Fast friendships, mentorships, lots of laughs and prayer and understanding. I've already talked about that quite a bit on here. Now I have a new group thing to add to the list: a group proposal.

A group of authors worked out a proposal for a series. We discussed town names and called dibs on character names and occupations, came up with some businesses, and settled on a series of stories set in a small town and including some key characters. Then each individual author (or co-authors, in my case, since I'm writing with Tracy) wrote up summaries for our own stories for the series, our fearless leader formatted them, we gave our bios and other odds and ends, and, finally, submitted a sample chapter.

And now we wait.

Working with a group like this has been different--it's definitely more involved than working with only one co-author. You have a group ready to give opinions, so there's a lot of debate, but there are also a lot of ideas. You have to work around other people's plots, make sure your town map is the same and your characters are consistent. But you also have the other author's backgrounds and audience to pull from. You're not going to be alone in your attempts to promote your book. There's a whole group of authors who want the series to succeed, so you kind of have your own marketing team.

The proposal has garnered some interest, but again, we just have to wait and see. If it's accepted, we'll have a virtual party, I'm sure. And if it's not, there are about ten of us who can console and commiserate with each other. Whether or not this project goes anywhere, it's been a very interesting and fun experience.