At risk of sounding foully pompous I think that writers' groups are probably very useful at the beginning of a writing career.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I believe strongly in writing groups such as Romance Writers Of America that offer support, information and networking.
If you are a good writer - and I think I am - you are able to handle any kind of group and imagine their lives.
Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers.
I do have the feeling that other writers can't help you with writing. I've gone to writers' conferences and writers' sessions and writers' clinics, and the more I see of them, the more I'm sure it's the wrong direction. It isn't the place where you learn to write.
I do have the sense that, although there may be no one way to write a novel, there are many novelists who are in fact part of some sort of larger literary community, whether in the form of a writing group or an MFA program, to name two of the more common forms.
I have a huge respect for writers and realise that this is not an area that I find easy. I doubt that I would have the patience in front of a blank sheet of paper to become a writer.
The writing workshops and programs that are everywhere have encouraged writing. And if that produces more writing, it's also producing more readers of an elevated level. So all in all, a good thing.
There may be writing groups where people meet but it's occasional. You really do it all at your own computer or your own typewriter by yourself.
I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.
Writers, as they gain success, feel like outsiders because writers don't come together in real groups.