Que Sais-Je? Writing Together in IAGP
Where tentative ideas become, through honest feedback and rewriting, work ready to share.
Some IAGP members do not know that it has a writing group. We come together to share and discuss proposals for professional writing. The aim of the group is to generate projects that may become writing, and writing that may become publications. It supports members who seek a wider audience for their work. As with any group, much of the value lies in the member-to-member interaction. This interaction focuses around the desire to expand our audience, to let professionals at home and abroad know about our work in the field. We currently meet online alternate Wednesdays for 90 minutes (afternoon for those on European time). All IAGP members are welcome to join and it is free. It is conducted in English.
Que sais-je? as the French writer Montaigne asked in 1580: what do I know? To answer this question he started out on what he called his Essais, which translates literally as “try-outs.” I believe we don't know what we really think until we explain our thoughts to ourselves and others. And writing is probably the best way to do this. Most beginning ideas are tentative or cloudy; through the writing process they become firmer and more coherent. A non-writer imagines that writing emerges fully assembled and grammatically correct from the writer's mind without revision, like Athena from the head of Zeus. No, writing is a gradual evolution of rethinking and rewriting. Our group discussions encompass the entire process, from creative proposal to editing to locating a suitable journal, which could be FORUM.
We write alone but writing is also relational. A group such as ours is the first and most sympathetic audience even if not the final one. We offer support, advice and experience to help the writer negotiate the doubts and demons that often lead to delay. “What do I know”? Most of us cannot answer that question immediately. We need a relational process to lead us to find what we have to say and present our professional work with others.
Our group has been meeting for several years. Inquiries are welcome.