Informal Sharing

Informal Sharing

• Adaptable

• Habitual

Informal sharing can be a wonderful part of any creative writing club. This is where a distinct club culture can form through shared story experiences and inside jokes. Depending on your club, it may be useful to consider these norms:

• Time Limits: How long and how often should members expect to share?

  • If every member is given the opportunity to share, it may be useful to set a guideline limit for every member's reading time.

  • Altneratively, you may establish a "sign up" for students to read longer and get more detailed feedback

• Sharing Culture: How will you encourage sharing?

  • Every club's climate around sharing will be different. Members may decline sharing for many reasons, especially if the nature of the writing is more personal. Ultimately, it is important to respect members' decisions not to share.

  • If you would like to make sharing a norm, it may be useful to provide members with extra encouragement. In BG Inklings, I ask every member, "Would you be willing to share with us?" This results in more responses than asking, "Would anyone like to share?" Keep in mind, though, this practice requires the club to have time for every member to share.

• Feedback: How should other club members respond to the sharing?

  • If you want to encourage regular sharing, it will be important for members to know how they are expected to respond. Depending on the group, it may be useful to explicitly teach feedback strategies.

• Sensitive Content: How should members decide what's appropriate to share?

  • As discussed in the FAQ section, some content may contain triggering material that makes others uncomfortable. It will be important to establish group norms to help members decide what is appropriate to share. Another strategy is to establish a norm of stating a content warning before triggering material and allowing anyone affected to leave the room. See more in FAQ: What should I do about Sensitive Content.