Working and playing with writing prompts is a great way to think out of the box, exercise your writing muscles, give birth to a new piece and/or enrich a work in progress. My intention is for this group to be a place and space that provides encouragement and safety for new writing. Writers of all levels of experience are welcome in this group. It's not about creating a finished product -- it's about developing a practice, getting words onto the page, taking risks, and enjoying the company of other writers.
Please note that the focus of this group is writing in real time, not critique. You will be invited to share what you've written, but you don't have to. Groups are approximately 90 minutes in length, and we work from at least two prompts each time we meet. As facilitator, I provide structure and prompts. As we get to know one another over time, I would be happy for others to step in to offer prompts or co-facilitation.
To keep us on task and give us a feeling of safety in creating new writing, I more or less follow the guidelines used by Amherst Writers and Artists. The guidelines for our group can be found by clicking the "pages" link. To make sure that all who are interested have time to share their work and that we don't overwhelm the particular coffee shop where we meet, our groups are limited in size.
My hope and intention is to combine fun with structure and commitment, so that there is a balance of each. Given that we meet as such a small group, it's important that I know how many writers to expect at each meeting. This helps me to choose a table. It also helps to make sure we don't have either too many writers for effective sharing (maximum of 6), or too few to create a good energy for writing (minimum of three). I ask that writers RSVP "yes" if you are going to attend a particular meetup, to cancel ahead of time if you change your mind, and to not come to a particular meetup if you have not RSVP'd or if the meet-up is full. Writers who don't honor this will be "uninvited" from the group (3 strikes and you're out).
If you have any questions about this group, or suggestions for great coffee shops to meet in Southwest Portland, please feel free to contact me.
Ruth
