Once you’ve completed any LRC course, you’re eligible to be invited via email to follow-up writing groups in your city. These are held throughout each month in various members’ homes. The idea is that you bring a piece you’re working on, to read and get constructive feedback on from the rest of the group. You’re also able to give your own feedback to others. We’ve found that nothing else hones your writing practice quite like having a follow-up gathering (FUG) to look forward to and prepare for. It’s a great way to meet people whom you would not necessarily come across, and get to know each other in creative and inspiring ways.
Hosting a Followup Gathering (FUG)
For those who have attended a Life Righting Collective course, and who wish to host a follow-up gathering, here are some guidelines to keep the space safe, energised and considerate:-
LRC host needs to have been on a course and ideally to have attended a few follow-up gatherings before hosting themselves, to witness and experience the ethos and approach.
Planning it
- Let us know if you would like us to include a date and time for a gathering in your home in our monthly Mailchimp notifications. Three to four hours one morning or afternoon on a weekday or weekend.
- Write to admin@liferighting.com, providing date, time and directions and an email address for interested LRC members to RSVP.
- Have tea, coffee and snacks, and ask participants to contribute towards the cost or to bring something to eat.
The FUG (Follow-Up Gathering)
- Try to start on time.
- It is important to remind writers that our gatherings are not therapy sessions, and the comments should be confined to helping each other improve the effectiveness of the writing. We do not give advice on life choices and dilemmas.
- The host may choose to be a timekeeper, or merely remind people approximately how much time they each have during the morning or afternoon.
- Participants take turns reading from pieces of writing they would like feedback on from the group.
- The feedback needs to be considered, respectful and honest. There is always something that is working in the piece, and there is usually something that can be improved. It is good practice to comment on both. Be aware that reading your work to others is an act of vulnerability, and we need to receive the work in a generous, open-hearted, open-minded, non-judgemental way.
- Feedback might vary, or differ – this can be interesting, and the author will decide for themselves what they will incorporate. There can be many points of view in the same room. Creative practice teaches us that there is not only one right way to write.
- Feedback is a form of editing, which can be creative in itself. In learning to comment on other people’s work, we grow our capacity to better evaluate our own. Consider bringing the same piece that you have edited back to the group the following month for further comment.
Hoping to see you at a follow-up gathering (FUG) soon.
Stay curious
Withhold judgement, offer editing feedback
Step down from the ladder of hierarchy and into the circle of community
