There's this pervasive, recalcitrant myth that writers are solitary hermits who spend their days hunched over old typewriters - not that there's anything wrong with an old typewriter - clicking out masterpieces one keystroke at a time.
(That might've worked for Hemingway, but - let's face it - Hemingway was kind of a weirdy. Brilliant, yes. But definitely an outlier on the scatterplot of How Writers Actually Work.)
Yet somehow we all still believe it! For shame. Let me just go ahead and say, this is ridiculous.
Drivel & Wit Chicago is an informal group of writers (that's just starting out, actually - new and exciting!) who understand that you make your work better by talking about it. We don't just write stories and novels and poems and screenplays and comics and memoirs and essays - we want to workshop them. We'll read them out loud to each other, digest them, talk about what works and what doesn't, vivisect our characters on the page, actually work (a verb) on our craft.
The group accept writers of all genres and levels. Writing is a true democracy, and we all learn from one another.
The idea is:
Everyone brings works in progress, whether it's an edited, nearly perfect draft, an idea to be bounced around and fleshed out, or anything in between. We spend most of our time discussing each others' work, because honest feedback is the only way to improve.
Writing is a process. The idea of sitting down and writing something worthwhile on the first go is nice, but pretty unrealistic. There's joy in editing and revision! It's the satisfaction of seeing something you love become better than you thought it could be.
We're here to find and refine our unique voices, to support and help each other grow as writers, and to have fun in a circle of fellow literary enthusiasts.
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