Don Quixote wasn’t the only person to tilt at the odd windmill or two, my personal shibboleth being writers’ groups. I’ve heard from many writers that they’re a source of inspiration and support, and that no writer of any note can do without them. Lately it’s been Virginia Woolfe held up as the archetype of why I should bother (but more on Ms Woolfe later).

So I’ve attended three different ones in my area, plus a few online and, to be frank, in the main they’re nothing but boast-fests. Add to that I’m an older white, straight, male and it’s much like being a pork chop in a synagogue. The people are nice enough, but there’s always an edge to remind me I don’t really belong. When the self promotion dies down (each meeting inevitably starting with choruses of  “how many’d you sell last month”) the so-called critique of work starts – and this is where the real issue for me lies.

In my experience it’s never been about how they can help improve your writing, but more about how they can make your writing more like theirs. Have 2 POV’s in your latest novel? Oh, that won’t do, my novels only have one, it’s what readers want. Using second-person POV? Well, we tried reading your work, too hard, look at mine. Etc, etc, ad nausem.

In the end, all writers’ groups do is ensure that your writing confirms to the current, accepted (read here “what sells the most” or “whose voice is the loudest that day”) norms as determined by the group. It is yet another case of group-think, just being imposed on creatives this time.

Which is all well and good if you want to be another voice in the crowd.

But if you want to be different, to stand out for good or ill? Then abandon hope all ye who enter, for it is the path to mediocrity.

And Ms Woolfe? Yes, she was part of a writers’ group for a while, but that was a small, tight-knit group who set out to defy convention – and, eventually, she outgrew them.

So do I think myself the next Virginia Woolfe? Hardly, but while there’s life …