I recently relocated to Austin, TX, and working from home and not going out much isn’t doing much for my social life. I’ve also resolved to start getting some traction on The Redheaded Stepchild, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and join a writer’s workshop meetup group. We had our first meeting last week (I remember because it was not Shark Week, and because it was the only day last week I bothered to put on a bra), and I’ve assessed the following tech writer-y pros and cons list:
Pros:
- It’s free. I like free. It’s much better than not free.
- It’s a good way to get some eyes on my stuff – some eyes of people who have a clue what they’re doing.
- It’s a good way to meet some like-minded people.
- It’s a good way to see some new parts of the city (we were right on the water at our last meetup).
- There’s a writing prompt exercise at every meetup.
Cons
- The meetup organizer is less than organized.
- They don’t exchange manuscripts before the meeting, so everyone just brings their stuff and we read it right there.
- Only 3 people came to the first meetup.
I’ll give it a few meetups before I decide if it’s a bust, but in the meantime, if you’re interested in the material I write from the prompts, I’ll put em up.