Last night at something close to 11:00pm, I located our tom cat, Shadow.  It’s a part of my routine to put the cats up each night, but there have been times when Shadow opted to stay out overnight.  However, last night when I called him, he meowed back.  And meowed.  And meowed.  But never got any closer.

Finally I got a big flashlight and went looking for him.  Way off at the edge of our five acres I heard the meowing from over my head, and, sure enough, Shadow was up a tree.

And not just any tree–it had to be a 50-100 foot tall pine with no branches, just a few stubs.  It was dark, it was raining, the tree was swaying in the wind, and he was thoroughly stuck.

As I stood there staring up, shining my light on the trunk and trying to talk this cat down, I thought of how as a writer I sometimes get myself stuck up a metaphoric tree and need help finding my way down.

Shadow was capable of climbing down, he did it just fine and didn’t even scrap or bruise in the process.  What he needed me to do was shine the light on the trunk, and from the way he kept meowing back to my every word, I guess he needed me to keep telling him he could do it.

When I write a story, it’s often in need of serious revision before it’s fit to be seen by the publishing world.  It has logical flaws in the plot, it klunks when it should be smooth, or there’re places where I skipped significant details and left my reader in the dark.  These are things I can fix, but sometimes I don’t know how.  I’m stuck, and can’t see the way down.  What a writing group can do is shed some light on the problem, and keep talking to me, letting me know I can fix this.

In the past I’ve had mixed feelings about writing groups, and discussed the pros and cons as I saw them.  They can be a mixed blessing, and it’s important to find a group that fits each writer in their current development level and projects.  But I’ve also found what a great asset a writing group can be.  Lately I’ve been extremely grateful for my writer’s groups, and to all the help writers extend to each other.  There’s nothing quite like a strong beam of light and an encouraging voice when one finds themselves stuck up a tree on a dark night in the rain.

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