Moments of Magic: Personal Story Writing in a Small Group

Writing stories from our lives and gathering with other people to read them can be a genuinely magical experience. The camaraderie developed, the motivation generated, the friendships created can be exceptional. It doesn't happen automatically, however. Just gathering a group and beginning is not a good formula. Too many hidden problems wait to emerge. Far better if the group adopts early some simple, basic guidelines.This book is about guidelines. It presents those developed in the story-writing seminar, "Turning Your Life into Literature," which has been running for more than a decade and has generated several ongoing writing groups. The guidelines are simple, but they can be challenging to follow.A writing group needs to understand its purpose, what it is there to do, but, even more, what it is not there to do. A group needs operating parameters, agreements on how members will and will not interact. A group needs to make certain commitments to one another regarding attentiveness, respect, and confidentiality. This book covers these areas.Additionally, it suggests cues for uncovering good stories in one's life, where and how to look. More than a few people come to a writing group quite skeptical about finding worthwhile stories in their memories. The book presents several simple tips on story-writing, things a writer does well to know about. And the book includes sample stories written by group members.The hope behind the book is twofold: that the reader will experience the wonder, the magic of sharing personal stories in a group, and that a future generation will uncover the treasure buried in a collection of family stories they inherit.