Beware Of

You want to join a writing group, but you're kind of hesitant. What if they are awful?

Yes, this is a possibility. When you get a group of people together, they can either uplift you or they can be toxic. (Well, there is a lot of in between, too.) Just keep in mind that you're not signing some sort of contract that obligates you to be there (and if they're requiring one of you--run far, far away). If you find they don't work for you, leave and don't go back.

You're going to want a group that is open to the kind of writing you do. If you write sci-fi/fantasy and everyone else writes mysteries, they might not be the group for you. But if everyone writes something a little different, that can work, too. (In my group, we have two writing contemporary fiction, one writing a mystery/thriller, two writing fantasies, and one writing a memoir. And for some reason we work together just fine.)

Someone who knows a whole lot more about writing groups than me wrote a long post about some things to look out for when looking into writing groups: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

What do you look for in a writing group? What are some things that make you leave a group and never return?