Cindy is always disappointed when I don't read.

I belong to a writers group, Writers under the Arch, that meets every Tuesday. It's fairly informal, and I've been attending, off an on, for more than a decade (there was a span of several years where I dropped out, but through luck managed to find them again). The size of the group fluctuates, but the rules are fairly simple: Read eight double-spaced pages (or several poems), bring copies for others if you have them, listen to everyone when they read, and give feedback.

It's all fairly immediate and in the moment, and while sometimes it's helpful to have time for reflection before shooting your mouth off, what I get in terms of feedback is frequently very insightful. Also, hearing myself read my story is a completely different experience from reading it to myself on a screen or on a sheet of paper. Things that seemed fine in print are suddenly clunky and ungainly on the tongue; more than a few times I've found myself editing as I read, having to pause and make a note or change the words around.

The group meets and Barnes & Noble at 6:30 and stays until everyone who brought something has had a chance to read, or until the store closes (whichever comes first). Because I'm an early riser, I usually duck out at 8:30; this is fine too. People show up late or depart early as their schedule requires. If you show up late, you wait until everyone who was there before you has had a chance to read. Sometimes, even when I have something prepared to read, I just sit and listen and offer feedback, and then when I have to leave, Cindy (our de facto moderator and fearless leader since long before I started attending) always tends to think I've been deprived when this happens, but that is so not the case.

A lot of the time, I think I learn more by listening to and reading and reacting to other participants' work than I do by reading my own. This is not to discount their feedback of my work at all. However, there's only a certain amount of distance I can create from my own work, whereas someone else's work has that distance built in. Much like reading books by other writers whom I admire or respect, seeing where members of the writing group got something right or wrong is just as instructive to me in my own writing as it is to theirs. This is why, even when I don't have something new to read, I still try to make it to the group. Even (and perhaps especially) when it's not about my own writing, there's still something to learn.