When you meet to read and discuss your poetry and fiction every week with a small group of people, and then afterwards just talk for an hour or two at a local eatery, something strange happens. It's almost inevitable considering the amount of time spent together, and the fact that for many writing is often personal. You become friends.
If you don't believe it is inevitable, conduct your own experiment. Try revealing your soul every week with a stranger, and see what happens. I guarantee one of two things:
- You will find you have nothing in common with this person, have no interest in keeping it up, and you will start viewing it as a chore. At this point, you're likely to stop coming. The stranger likely was feeling the same thing, so there should be no guilty feelings.
- You will start looking forward to these gatherings, and count the other person as your friend.
As friendships build, the natural outgrowth is parties, and other social gatherings. When groups of writers gather, creative things sometimes occur...no, often occur.
Here be a record of some of the creative outgrowths of our informal gatherings.
1) Renga - Linked Elegance (click for explanation of this Japanese party game)
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