Just putting this out there in hopes one of my group sees it. Ha!

Last night, our writer’s group met. It’s nice, that is, nice to have friends who do what I do. We meet, some read, we critique, and then we visit. It’s almost always about the writing. Sometimes we discuss books, but for the most part, it’s what works best and when should the chapter begin and where and how to develop those characters and creating real dialogue. There are, however, a couple of folks in our group who don’t write, or they don’t write often. They come and sometimes have good comments, but otherwise, they sit and drink beer and see this as a social club, did I tell you they don’t write? In fact, one never understands anything that is read. She wants to know on chapter one the entire plot, characters, and why is this being done. Development dumb ass is what I want to say, but the more refined members just answer her question with brevity and move on. I want to dismiss these dead weight members. You know, get writers in there. I’m seeing three that could easily be replaced with three really good writers. Writers who will produce and participate and understand—is that too much to ask? At one time, our group was a hodgepodge of people and some of us grew and some stayed behind, and then we added fresh faces, academic faces, and we all have this opportunity to learn and grow as writers, but they stay behind doing nothing. In addition to the educated, and I include myself in that category, we have a couple of folks who are high school graduates, and they write fine; one in particular is a mighty fine writer and learns and improves through our guidance. That’s what keeps a writer’s group fresh. Maybe in a few months, we can come together and make those hard decisions to ask those who are not productive to move aside and let us get real writers in there, folks who are goal oriented and want the same thing we want, to get our novels and short stories and poems published. Do I hear an Amen Sister?