Professional Writing Organisations: What’s the go with Those?

For a start, what do I mean when I say, ‘join a professional writing organisation’? Do I mean a writing group (in my mind, a different beast)? What deems an organisation professional? What makes it worthwhile spending the money to be a part of one? 

If you’re not sure whether joining a writer’s group/writing centre/all permutations thereof is the right step for you, you’ve come to the right (or ‘write’?) place! Read on for my analysis of all the little things that might influence your decision… And at the end, I’ll provide a list of places you might want to follow or join!

When is it time for me to join a professional writing organisation? 

Of course, everyone is different. But for many, the right time to join a professional, structured writing organisation is when they feel they’ve reached the limitations of their own circle. What do I mean by that? Well, I think it’s when you feel like you’re treading water creatively—you want to develop further, but you’re not sure how. You’re interested in meeting other writers, but where does one do that? People keep talking about writing festivals… what the hell are those? And competitions? How do people know about so many competitions?!

Enter countless professional writing organisations to fill the gap. 

Why join a professional writing organisation?

Building a Writing Community 

Something I’ve repeatedly noticed about novice writers is the sensation of being utterly alone and somewhat lost. When we first begin to write—often furtively, uncertainly—we do so in a vacuum. We know who famouscontemporary writers are: the quickest to spring to mind for most are authors like JK Rowling and Stephen King. We might, if thoroughly immersed in the writing scene, even know who some flourishing writers are. (Or we might not). But what about people like us? Newbies? Struggling to find our voice and get published?  

If you’re lucky (like me), you’ll stumble onto friends over the internet (thank you Twitter!). But there’s something about being able to chat with people in personabout writing that is hard to beat. And there something about meeting writers who are in the same boat as you (i.e. subject to the same regional circumstances) that’s hard to beat to. If you’re an Aussie, this is especially true! Our writing, literary, and publishing processes are different to the US and the UK, and this makes having an Australian writing community especially valuable. 

Professional writing organisations can play a crucial role in helping us to build a writing community and to understand the milieu of which we are a part. They can introduce us to emerging local and regional authors, and invite us to push boundaries we’d never even considered before… Which leads us right into the next point. 

Courses – Developing Your Skills

Do you need to do writing courses to succeed as a writer? Personally, I don’t think so: mostly because that’s a blanket statement that seems a bit overreaching. However, I do think courses can offer you the structure to keep you on track and the tools to help you re-imagine your process. Courses also offer us a convenient, packaged way to dip our toe into new ideas and be exposed to different methodologies… some of which may be exactly what we’ve been looking for! 

But then the problem becomes, which course should we do? Where do we even find one? Don’t they cost money? (Like… a lot of it?) This is another place where structured writing organisations can help us navigate a minefield, by… (look, it’s led right into the next point!) keeping us in the loop. 

The Loop – Getting In & Staying In

I know we all have overflowing email inboxes (the real problem of the internet), but I suggest considering adding a few more subscriptions. Virtually all professional writing organisations have a regular newsletter, which is typically chock-a-block full of useful information. Why bother with these newsletters? A few reasons: 

Reducing Isolation

Such missives make us feel more a part of a writing community: we’re not alone! In fact, we’re part of large group of people who love language, and we’re all in it together. These newsletters also highlight courses currently being run or coming up and events on the organisation’s calendar.

Keeping Writing in our Minds

Even better, by skimming through these emails or (gasp! Shock! Horror!) actually clicking through to read the content, we think about writing. It’s not something squirreled away in a dark corner of our brain: it’s front and centre. Having writing in our faces not only makes it more normalised, but can help provide people with the motivation to get after their own writing. After all… it’s not just us doing it alone now, is it?

Incentive to Participate

It’s hard to read email after email about competitions, open submissions and writing festivals without feeling just the tiniest glimmer of enthusiasm. Maybe we could submit to a competition? Buy tickets for a writing festival? (Or go along to some free events!) Another massive bonus of professional writing organisations is they constantly seem to provide ideas and incentive to write. 

The Pros & Cons of Professional Organisations

Cons

The biggest con is the easiest – membership costs money. Not necessarily a lotof money (though that is completely dependent on the individual)… but shelling out cash is still required. Never a particularly palatable state of affairs! The question is, is it worth it? My answer is yes, for the reasons below. 

Pros

Well, I kind of listed most of these above, but… the flow of information, news and ideas about writing is incredibly valuable.

The most valuable thing though? The membership discount. You really don’t have to go to many things to make back your membership fee. Especially if doing some courses has been on your list for ages, why not do them for cheaper than you otherwise would have? Most writers’ centres/organisations offer discounts on all their products: including courses, workshops, manuscript assessments, mentorships, writers’ studiosand events. Some events are free for members and incur a small fee for non-members. Believe me, it quickly adds up!

Professional Writing Organisations that May be Right for You

Firstly there are the big ticket, national centres. Some, such as the Australian Writers’ Centre actually don’t have a membership fee… just a regular newsletter, some great prizes, and a TRUCKLOAD of courses available for your delectation.

My personal favourite right now, however, is the Australian Society of Authors. Non-professional (i.e. an ’emerging’ or commercially unpublished) author membership costs close to $200, which is a hip pocket hit, no doubt about it. It also may not be feasible for everyone (though they have a membership deal on for March!). BUT if it is, they have some great courses & events, and numerous ways of helping emerging & established authors do their business in Aus without getting screwed over.

Then, of course, there are all the states-based writing organisations. Many of these groups will have smaller, local groups under their umbrella that you can attend & participate in. Full (individual) membership normally costs between $70-$80, with youth/student membership a bit below that.

QLD: Queensland Writers Centre

NSW: Writing NSW

VIC: Writers Victoria

SA: Writers SA

WA: Writing WA, The Literature Centre (interestingly enough, both of these have no membership fee).

NT: Northern Territory Writers’ Centre

TAS: Tasmanian Writers’ Centre (and this one has no fee either!)

ACT: ACT Writers Centre

Well, I gotta be honest… I think that about sums it up (as far as my knowledge goes! for now. See you next week!

Ana