Fact Sheets

Episode 2

The Importance of Mixing with Other Writers| Elizabeth Bezant

Ask any successful writer about the main contributing facts to their success and chances are that they’ll say, a good grounding of information in writing and publishing, hard work and regular, ongoing support and interaction with other writers.

Whether you’re only able to scrawl down writing ideas in stolen minutes or are able to spend hours making uniform shapes on a computer screen, writing time tends to be more productive when you’re surrounded by silence. Even when we’re not writing, being in the company of others can be hard because we’re distracted from what’s happening around us by the ideas pounding through our heads. Writing is, in essence a solitary and isolated pastime.

Yet writing also requires a certain amount of sharing, whether it be in person, on-line or over the phone. Writers need to know that there are other people out there who’ll discuss the merits of our idea for an article. We need to know there’s someone who can inspire us towards chapter 15 when we are floundering on chapter 5. We need to know how others have picked themselves up after receiving a heartbreaking rejection note and we need to have someone who’ll jump up and down with us when we’re sent a cheque or contract in the mail. There are many people who accept the highs, lows and doubts of living a writer’s life, but I wonder if only another writer can truly understand them.

But mixing with like-minded people gives us more than support and motivation. We also acquire vital knowledge and feedback. Talking with others who have gone before us and those who walk behind us provides us with an invaluable network of details in the ever-changing writing world. For one person to keep up-to-date with every publisher’s requirements, every competition, every request for work and every changing nuance is impossible, even if we’re only looking at one single genre or one form of publishing. But as a group, we have access to more of these details and as such, more opportunities to become published.

With the advance of technology and the household use of the internet there are now many different and accessible ways to network with other writers, face to face, online, through mail and so on. But for those people interested in physically attending writing groups within Western Australia, there’s a wide range of writing groups to choose from, most of which are open to everyone.

Writer’s Groups in Perth

The largest is the Western Australian Writers Centre (WAWC). This is made up of 4 large writing centres based in the metropolitan area. Each of these centres is open on selected days throughout the week, and all of them offer a selection of social events, talks and workshops to writers of all levels and ages.
The centres included in WAWC are the State Literature Centre in Fremantle and the Fellowship of Australian Writers located in Swanbourne. Greenmount has the Katherine Suzannah Prichard Writers Centre and on the ECU Campus in Joondalup is the Peter Cowan Writers Centre.
Alternatively there are, in Perth and country areas, various writing groups that meet at a designated location once a week to focus on writing and writers. Many are attached to public libraries. The State Literature Centre, your local shire office or your local community directory can direct you to others.

Contacts

State Literature Centre

Fremantle Arts Centre, 1 Finnerty Road, Fremantle.

Tel: 9432 9559

http://writerswritingwa.org

Fellowship of Australian Writers WA

Tom Collins House, Allen Park, 88 Wood Street, Swanbourne.

Tel: 9384 4771

www.members.iinet.net.au/~fawwa/

Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre

11 Old York Road, Greenmount.

Tel: 9294 1872