The organization where my husband works conducts writing workshops during summer vacation. Obviously, the target participants are students. But half of the participants are adults and about a third of the adults are seniors. Every year, they have noticed that ratio. Some senior participants attend not for the learning but more for the camaraderie. The workshop is about story writing and there's another for scriptwriting. That workshop, by the way, was the reason why my husband was hired by the organization. I had seen on the newspaper an advertisement of the writing workshop and suggested it to my husband who was idle at that time. He came out as an outstanding graduate and was eventually offered a position. Back to the workshop, they had just ended the classes for this year since the school year had started last week. Those who graduated from the workshop would be trying their hand in writing stories for a possible television series. I think that's a good enough break if one senior could get inside a tv network by way of a good story.
I worked with someone who was a member of a Dallas area writers group. My coworker wrote very well, but nothing publishable. Which is sad, as most people join a writers club with the hope of honing their writing till it is good enough to be published. Does the group critique your work? Do they encourage people to send items to publishers?
During my stint as a moderator of a local peer to peer community 5 years ago, We've created a forum where the member's writing composition be it prose, poem, essay, news or other literary articles are published via the community board. We highlight and discuss a piece published by the member to the community board. Initially, everyone was excited and more are contributing their obra and masterpieces which were open for critiques. But as it goes, some member got unruly and were hardheaded to follow rules, making us moderators to open and close threads even banning some members ultimately. Some members are really so unbecoming that we eventually decided close the forum due to excessive hacking and security threats. I guess some members cannot really just take criticisms and get on their evil agenda instead to break the community apart. We concluded: we really cannot please everybody and that opinion on beauty (in all its form) lies on the beholder. What is pleasing to one might not be to another. And we all just have to agree and respect about it. It really made me sad since the forum lasted for almost 7 years online. Another aspect for the disband were that some sub-forums needed licensing and our concentration to our respective careers and families that made us admins and mods agree to close it down.
You are right on that. So many senior participants would join the discussion just for the sake of joining, they obviously wanted attention and when given that privilege, joy is evident on their faces. My husband's organization is planning to hold an informal writing workshop that would have more of discussions than lesson - like a story writing clinic. But the real intention is to provide a convergence zone for the seniors. It's a noble idea. However, workshops involve a big budget because they normally provide food for the whole day classes.
There are some writing groups in the Richmond area, but the one I am familiar with, most of the people have self published books, and basically show each other the finished product and so forth. It is really not a skills based group. I went to it one time and on the way back, since it was dark.I managed to bash my car somehow on a rail of some sort at the gas station. I have not been back since!
You made me smile K E! This is the first time I've read that someone's interest in writing would lead to an accident. hahaha... What I fully know was that 'Writing should inspire you most since your emotions will go along as you write your piece. Like in my case when I write my thoughts, I sometimes cry if it is about life lessons and experiences due to the recall of memory that flows within as I write.