What do people think of meetups?

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  • What do people think of meetups?

    Hi everyone.

    My manager has suggested I do a meetup and do more networking in London?

    What do people think of meetups? I've done my research - I'm not sure how useful they are. I messaged the organiser of one event who said "we're mostly non-professionals".

    From my research, it's basically offline online dating ha.

    Has anyone ever done one in London?

  • #2
    Re: What do people think of meetups?

    Originally posted by The Dark Horse View Post
    Hi everyone.

    My manager has suggested I do a meetup and do more networking in London?

    What do people think of meetups? I've done my research - I'm not sure how useful they are. I messaged the organiser of one event who said "we're mostly non-professionals".

    From my research, it's basically offline online dating ha.

    Has anyone ever done one in London?
    Years ago, when I arrived in the city in which I now reside, I thought that I would join a local screenwriter meetup. There were two, but one fizzled out and dissolved just after I signed up for it (I wondered then if it was because I signed up for it). The other meetup soon collected the remnants of that ragtag, fizzled-out group, though, and bolstered its membership by double.

    The experience that I had in the meetup group for screenwriters was an eye-opener. This screenwriting meetup group required printouts on paper of the latest ten-page efforts that you wished to bring before the altar of sacrifice (requiring one to spend a fortune on printer inks).

    Worse than that, almost all of the meetup members ascribed to the tenets of screenwriting gurus such as Syd Field, and nonsensical books such as “Save the Cat!” along with myriad other spurious publications and carnival barkers whose sole intent is to bilk fledgling screenwriters and divest them of their funds with promises of “can’t fail” formulas of the calculated screen story methods that Hollywood cannot deny. The vociferous members of the group who ruled those meetup meetings with iron fists and hobnailed-heels quoted those gurus as though they were cult leaders. They quoted those publications as though they were bibles of a religion, and the religion was Screenwriting. Step outside those bounds, my friend, then woe unto you, and you shall be shunned in meetup meetings ever afterward.

    It amazed me that so many could be so easily led by so few who knew so little. It was the blind leading the more blind, if that is possible, although it is only said for effect here. After a few meetup meetings, I reflected on the history of how World War II began long before any military conflict erupted and saw that it was time to join the Resistance, don my writer’s beret and a bandolier of Montblanc pens, and make my escape to seek asylum elsewhere.

    In the case of screenwriters, it is better to write alone and measure yourself against those whose works have been produced rather than to remain in an unproductive group whose multiple and varied critiques and criticisms can be at odds from one to another, completely incorrect, possibly motivated by jealousy, stymie your good talent on the rise, and almost always lead you in the wrong direction.

    For feedback on your script, use any of the script services of the top four “Sticky” notes in the “Sites, Services, Software, and Supplies” forum. For networking with other screenwriters, use Done Deal Pro or other sites that rise to its level.

    My advice to you is this: do not join a screenwriting meetup group. It would serve you better to go the way of Socrates and drink Conium maculatum and be discovered and revered posthumously as a writer than to drink the Jim Jones Flavor Aid of a screenwriting meetup.

    Unable to be at the banquet at City Hall in Stockholm, Sweden on December 10, 1954, Ernest Hemingway wrote an acceptance speech to the Swedish Academy for his Nobel Prize in Literature, a speech delivered by U.S. Ambassador to Sweden John M. Cabot. In the written speech, Hemingway stated the following:

    “Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing.”

    For me, that says it all.
    Last edited by Clint Hill; 01-03-2020, 06:52 AM.
    “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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    • #3
      Re: What do people think of meetups?

      Hi TigerFang.

      Thanks for the detailed reply.

      Yeah - I had a feeling they wouldn't be too productive.

      I think I'll just stick with Done Deal Pro for now and collect screenwriter friends as I go.

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      • #4
        Re: What do people think of meetups?

        There are some great meetups here in the states (NYC and LA) that include WGA writers and non-WGA writers. If you follow @thegarygraham (was in NYC, now in LA) and people he follows, you'll see the invites.

        these WGA meetups will help you get to know other writers. writers help writers. they look like they get 50 - 100 writers together.

        https://www.facebook.com/events/760242814445081/
        @Jaws5TheReturn

        #LATVwriters (check out this hashtag)
        #WGAMixer (for WGA and pre-WGA writers)

        Avishai ✡ Weinberger (follow him)
        @avishaiw

        they get really great turnouts. it's always a good idea to network with other wirters, regardless of their status.

        I'm hoping to go to a few in NYC this year.
        "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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        • #5
          Re: What do people think of meetups?

          Hemingway did blow his brains out with a shotgun, so I don't think the lonely writing life is all it's cracked up to be.

          I've never done the meetup thing, however it is important to find a group of like-minded writers who are on, or slightly above, your level. Even if the group doesn't catapult your writing, it's at least good to commiserate with your fellow scribes. Especially if you're in a new city like LA or NYC.

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          • #6
            Re: What do people think of meetups?

            Originally posted by docgonzo View Post
            Hemingway did blow his brains out with a shotgun, so I don't think the lonely writing life is all it's cracked up to be.
            To dissuade readers from thinking that Hemingway lived the lonely life of a writer, it was not that which caused his depression. The family has a history of suicides. Like his father’s suicide, it was as likely as not a medical condition — hemochromotosis — that did in Hemingway and led him to the iron of the shotgun before the iron of his body got him.

            As to the merits of joining a writers group, a WGA writers group sounds dandy if it’s available to a writer, and a good local writers group could work out well for those who need support. To each their own, I say. In the end, though, I must agree with Hemingway, for writing is a solitary endeavor.
            Last edited by Clint Hill; 01-11-2020, 09:19 PM.
            “Nothing is what rocks dream about” ― Aristotle

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            • #7
              Re: What do people think of meetups?

              Originally posted by TigerFang View Post
              To dissuade readers from thinking that Hemingway lived the lonely life of a writer, it was not that which caused his depression. The family has a history of suicides. Like his father's suicide, it was as likely as not a medical condition - hemochromotosis - that did in Hemingway and led him to the iron of the shotgun before the iron of his body got him.
              Also, he had been severely injured in a plane crash on safari in Africa, which left him with serious head trauma. One of the few on-camera interviews Hemingway made was after the crash and it's clear from his speech that the effects must have been devastating to a writer of his caliber

              https://youtu.be/Nsv63C9tDJE

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