We want to help our members produce published works. A simple sentence and yet such a huge and complex goal.
How does Thanet Creative help Thanet’s writers get published?
We have three area that we focus on between our blog, online communities, and live events.
- Training and tutorials
- Critique and feedback
- Support and encouragement
Training and tutorials
Our training is not so much about a few authors saying “we know everything so pay attention” but about writers sharing things that they have learned. Very much in line with “hey, did you know this cool thing? I think its awesome and I’d love to tell you about it.”
Most of our teaching is put up on the website. We do run live seminars and events but not anywhere near as often we post blogs.
Critique and feedback
The two main places to get feedback and critique are our Facebook group and our live events (like Tea and Chat).
For me, the live critiques are by far the most powerful tools for my writing. Sometimes the most useful insights don’t actually come from established writers. The critiques I value most are from people who really engage with the material like a true fan would. That’s pure gold.
Just this last week I trialled a poem at the Tea and Chat. No one at the event had heard the poem before. In the past, feedback (from poets) had been wholly positive. The discussion after the reading was very telling.
For starters, not being poets, the people at the event felt no compunction about calling me out on a line that sounds great but fails to really communicate very much.
Someone piped up, “what does this bit mean?”
Although I was able to explain, I could also see that it did not mean all that much. That line is going to get some close attention. The emperor needs some real clothes.
Support and encouragement
This is where I feel that events like Tea and Chat really come into their own. They create a safe space and an intimate community that developing writers can grow within.
Support was why we created the original Facebook group (the one that got taken over before we learned to be careful about who we gave admin rights to). Our current Facebook and Author Buzz UK groups are still places you can come to for support and advice.
There is something wholly satisfying about being able to help a writer find their own voice. We’ve got a whole lot of plans and I would love to tell you about them. I’m not going to because of the Thanet Canute. I’ve learned that until this cyber-bully grows up, there is no value in talking about things until they are ready to go. For me, support means protecting people from this sort of childish nonsense.
Anyway, enough of the dark stuff. Thanet Creative is a place to encourage writers to, well, write. If you are local to Thanet and want to join a vibrant and friendly community of writers, why not come along to one of our events.