The Writing Group That Helped Me Cross the Finish Line

On March 20, I released my first fiction book, Blood & Wolf. Without a doubt, I had a lotta help to arrive at this moment, including a writing-group helper: my accountability group.

Blood & Wolf started with a dream. Seriously. I woke up with snatches of werewolf images floating around my head, helped myself to a big mug of coffee, and sat in front of my laptop and typed for all I was worth. By the end of the day, I had about 15,000 words of an outline, which I hadn’t seen coming.

Unexpected, but very welcome. Maybe.

I didn’t know what to do with what I had written. While I had been experimenting with creative writing, I had no chops for producing a full fiction book, and didn’t know how to translate a very rough outline with a mish-mosh of sentences, bullet points and half-baked ideas (pictures, too!) into an actual book that people might read. Yikes.

To keep my inner baby author from throwing a tantrum, I told myself that many writers faced similar challenges and triumphed. I could do it, too.

Still, I felt overwhelmed and was ready to toss the whole mess into the trash.

And if you’ve ever felt this way, and it’s stopped you from doing your work: I want to recommend being a part of some kind of writing group. Lucky for me, I was already a member of an accountability writing group with an online discussion board. (In this type of group, we didn’t exchange material. Instead, we posted about our progress on whatever it was we were working on, and collectively encouraged each other to keep going to reach our targets.)

I was in the right place at the right time. From the first outline through the multiple drafts of Blood & Wolf and right through all the additional steps, I had a place where I was heard, where I could share my progress for the past week and set new goals for the coming week.

Sometimes I celebrated an achievement, yippee! But full disclosure: there were plenty of times when I fell off the productivity wagon and didn’t reach whatever target I had aimed for. No matter. I used the board to document it all, and was I blessed! Other members chimed in with interest and encouragement—nothing judgy. They’d also share their own goals for the week so I could take my turn and cheer them on.

So, I’m very grateful to the wonderful accountability group members who provided a unique kind of support that’s hard to find. They helped me maintain my momentum and allowed me to contribute a little to their achievements.

All this to say, Blood & Wolf has come to life. It’s my first book, so there’s lots of room for my improvement as an author. But it’s a beginning, and I don’t think I would have gotten here if not for my accountability group.