It’s been about a month since I’ve begun the “Markham Writing Group”, now titled the Community of Markham Writers, and it has already been a learning experience. The idea was first met with much enthusiasm by myself and fellow founder, Karen Yuen. Without her support and positive feedback, I probably would have never gathered the guts to take on such a task. Even now, with her continued encouragement, I find it in myself to continue the hard work it takes to maintain the group.
Despite much online support for the group, it’s been difficult to obtain any faithful in-person members and, to be frankly honest, the number remains at 3 (with myself, Karen, and Johnathan Lui). Our meetings, as per our group’s objectives, are dedicated towards form exploration and mentoring and has been productive in expanding our creative scope and encouraging production. I am starting to feel in “the groove” even more with our current excursion into Short Fiction – a form I’m very familiar with and passionate about. Unfortunately, our group hasn’t seem to grown despite our well wishes and future objectives.
This week, after meeting, I laid my disappointment out on the table with Karen, lamenting the smallness of the group and, despite the online support, the lack of physical members. Perhaps there was a lack of creative outlet in Markham because there was no creative interest to tap into? Fortunately, Karen is a strong personality and helped pull me out of my rut by brainstorming solutions rather than fuelling regret. Within our hour of discussion, we’ve come to new goals and obtainable objectives to become the group that we want to be.
Although much of our plans are still in progress, I realize now that a group with a loyal base doesn’t happen overnight. We’re going to look into viral marketing at the moment (kind of like those Obay adds that cropped up everywhere in downtown T.O. but without all that advertising cost) and we’re also planning to place out a call for submissions (with a fee) to generate interest in the group and, if the call is successful, the financial support needed to take our group to the next level. The call for submissions will involve the creation of an anthology of work. But of course, baby steps must be taken.
Another bright-side tidbit to consider is that my great friend, Cindy Yang, has offered to create a new and exciting logo for our group – one that I hope to spread around on social networks and community centres. I’m sure that whatever it will be, it will be an upgrade from my Word Doc creation. Even more, it’ll have the added exoticism of coming all the way from Shanghai! Haha.
On the side, I’m looking for employment. Despite the fact that I’ve worked hard to be where I am right now (comfortably unemployed without any school to worry about), my lack of income makes me uncomfortable. I’ll also be going on a vacation for about three weeks at the end of June, but am sure to come back with renewed vigour and concentration.