I belong to the North Richardson Screenwriters Group (serving the Dallas area). We meet every other Monday. For me, the benefits are: Community: Writing can be very lonely work. It's nice to get out of the house, talk to people who are in your same boat and will celebrate your little victories and sympathize with your rejections. Goal-setting: I always want to have new pages to bring to a meeting so I always push myself to have ten pages done every two weeks. Brainstorming: Sometimes a member will come to the group with an idea or a logline or a sticky plot point and we talk it out, each person building off the other's ideas. You can get much of the same benefits from an online group, I suppose. But I like being able to talk to warm bodies once in a while.

Thanks, Barbara. This is what I'm talking about. Writing is such a solitary, lonely experience. To have a group of other writers with whom to share ups and downs, pages for review, feedback, and just plain conversation can be enormously beneficial. I'm guessing there must be hundreds of public writers' groups [not including private ones]. I'm going to do a concerted push to source as many as possible. Barbara, does your group have a web presence? Is it open to the public? If so please provide that information.

oh, that would be perfect for me! I need to get off my butt and actually hit one of your meetings!

We have a page on Meetup. It's the North Dallas Screenwriters Group (oops). But we meet in Richardson. http://www.meetup.com/north-dallas-screenwriters/ There are dues - $10 per year, which covers the cost of maintaining the Meetup page and pens, brads, etc. It is open to the public, but if you want to bring pages to read, you need to sign up ahead of time because we only have time to do so many in each meeting. We also have the Dallas Screenwriters Association http://www.dallasscreenwriters.com/ which has monthly speakers and a monthly page reading session, where local actors will table read a scene for you.

Here's one from Twitter: http://www.meetup.com/WriteTogether/ Based in London.

Will definitely try to make the next one, Barbara.

For anyone in mid-Wales, Aberystwyth Screenwriters' Group meets the last Wednesday of every month. The group is mostly a feedback group, giving notes on scripts, outlines etc circulated by e-mail in advance, but we also hear pitches, and many members have teamed up to make shorts, web projects, etc. We're hoping to have a new venue soon, so anyone in mid and west Wales who's interested can contact me by leaving a message on my blog: http://debbiemoon.wordpress.com We're also affiliated to the Facebook group Wales Screenwriting Posse, which links writers in all parts of Wales. The Posse also has occasional mass-meetups...

I belong to a group that meets in Thousand Oaks, CA. Our MeetUp page: (Please not that we've cancelled the meeting for next Sunday!) http://www.meetup.com/ConejoValleyWriters/ We have writers of all levels. We meet once a month on a Sunday afternoon for about two hours. We have a small core of dedicated members but we could definitely use some more!

I guess I should mention that the screenwriters group is a smaller subset of the Conejo Valley Writers. Look for Screenwriters Read and Critique on the Meetup page.

I'm a member of two writing groups based in London, UK. The first provides mutual support, the other feedback. The first is Write Together, which Scott mentioned earlier (thanks): http://www.meetup.com/WriteTogether. Writing Together is not a normal writing group. During these meetups, writers gather in order to focus on writing, along with other writers. It sounds odd, but our regulars find it helps motivate them to write. The meetups have a 'no talking' rule – like in a library – so there is no discussing feedback or critiquing. However, members will go for a drink and a chat afterwards. There are Write Together meetups all over London at different times of the week. I organise a weekly meeting in Camden Town, London. And Write Together members are all free to host their own regular, or one-off, meeting. Write Together is open to anyone who is a member of Meetup.com. I joined a group called ScriptTank (http://scripttank.info) to help my writing develop through feedback. ScriptTank is a group of professional screenwriters, playwrights and directors, who arrange table readings of member's works. After the member's script is read, the audience (and actors if they wish) give their notes to the writer: in front of the entire group. The rules regarding feedback are (apart from common courtesy): help the writer develop the piece they want to write (i.e. don't tell them what you would write); only one person may give feedback at a time; and the writer isn't allowed to speak until everyone else - including actors, if they wish - have given their notes. As ScriptTank's members are formed of people who've written for the Royal Court, National Theatre, BBC TV and radio, and the UK's main TV channels, the feedback is detailed, unforgiving, relevant and structured to helping the writer create a better work. You get notes you can pay hundreds to receive from a script editors, for the price of a few beers. After the reading, everyone has a drink and a chat afterwards. One of ScriptTank's regulars – Stephen Fingleton – was listed in the last Black List, for his film The Survivalist. That script was premiered at ScriptTank. ScriptTank is open to new members, but it is not a place for writers who are starting out. You have to submit writing samples to the organisers before you can attend.

Thanks for mentioning this group Scott. I'm a member, so I've added some more details about it below.

Another one from Twitter: "Reference Section. NoHo. Meet monthly. Open for a couple new members, require short bio and 20 page submission."

I'm a member of the Write Brained Network, also called Shenandoah Writer's Group. We meet once a month in Harrisonburg, VA rotating critique feedback. On-line: http://writebrainednetwork.ning.com/ On FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Write-Brained-Network/107102116051115

I started a free screenwriting group for TV and feature writers just over 3 years ago now, based in Pasadena CA (though group members come from all over the LA area): http://www.meetup.com/PASgroup/ The idea of the group was to provide a way for committed screenwriters to provide feedback on completed scripts (I'd been to other groups that read 20 pages from the start or middle of a script, and while that's great it's a little frustrating when you can't tell where the story's going or what the overall structure is). The emphasis is on *reciprocal* feedback, so members can't submit a script for discussion until they've attended two meetings (one recently) - in other words, you have to give before you receive ;-) Aside from that, there are basically no rules ! We have two meetings per month, at which we provide feedback on a completed script (or if it's TV, two completed scripts) written by members, which we all download and read *in advance of* the meeting. We're very fortunate to be able to meet at the homes of two group members - one for our TV meetings, one for our feature meetings - and that makes for a very peaceful and (I hope!) friendly environment. We also have monthly mixers to allow group members to get together and relax without having to read 100+ pages of script first ;-) Claire Newman. www.planetwriter.net

I doubt I can add anything original on the benefits of writers' groups. Suffice it to say that it's been a life-changing experience for me. We're based in Zurich, Switzerland. Most of us are Anglophone expats. Our group's been around for about a year and a half now. We've been holding regular critique sessions twice a month and meeting up informally as well. Our group isn't strictly for screenwriters, though. Many of us also write short stories, poetry and novels and have had our work published. A couple of our members are involved in organizing the Zurich Writers Workshop and have offered to use its website as our web presence: http://www.zurichwritersworkshop.com/.