Starting a Creativity Support Group

In Felicia Day’s memoir, “You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Mostly)” she talks about joining a creativity support group.  She kept coming to the meetings with nothing to show, until she finally started a project so that she wouldn’t show up empty handed.  That project was The Guild, a highly successful web-based show, one that allowed her to express her creativity fully.

My friends and I have started a creativity support group, that we are calling the Inspirators. We have a game designer, artists, writers, a meme creator and cake designer.  We set up a Facebook Group and we also meet in person.  We are a support and accountability group, encouraging each other to keep creating.  Members tell us a project they are working on, and then we determine what the next step is.  Then we know what to ask about, to encourage and nudge them.  While members can exchange work for critique, that is a secondary function.  We also share knowledge, resources and ideas.  I’ve read about creativity and goal groups in several excellent books (The Artist’s Way, Wishcraft,  and The Happiness Project)

For myself, I’ve put my other projects on the back burner while I work on NaNoWriMo.  This year I’m going back to the first novel I ever wrote and rewriting it.  I have discovered that it is awful.  I’m hoping that’s a good sign, that I’ve gotten better as a writer since then and rewriting it will be a good exercise.