Flashback Friday: Episode 288 with Joni Cole

<p>How do I find a writing group and what if they’re mean?</p><p>That’s a question we get asked a lot, and we always encourage writers to reach out in our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/hashtagamwriting">Facebook group</a> or boldly throw it out there anywhere else online that you hang out and see what happens. You don’t even have to trade pages to be a writing group. You look for the kind of support and camaraderie you need.</p><p>But if you’ve ever thought of hying yourself off to your local version of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.grubstreet.com/">Grub Street</a> or our local spot for in-person writer-ness, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.writer.org/">The Writer’s Center</a> to find your people—or possibly starting an in-person writer-connection-thing of your own, then you’ll want to listen to my conversation with Joni Cole, founder of said Writer’s Center and the author of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Feedback-Helping-Writers-Expanded/dp/0826364837">Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive</a>—which is just freshly out in a revised version, which is why we’re bringing this convo back to you now! This new version has half a dozen new chapters, plus new interviews with famous authors who share their own feedback stories--from the inspiring to the deranged. The new chapters cover issues such as:</p><p>-- how to overcome imposter syndrome; </p><p>-- how to catch yourself when you're resisting feedback that you really need to hear; </p><p>-- how to receive and offer feedback on particularly difficult or delicate story material;</p><p>-- and one whopper of a story on how to negotiate with your publisher when you absolutely hate their proposed cover of your book (See chapter entitled "Fifty Shades of Writing"). </p><p>Joni is also the author of <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/1183/9781611689112">Good Naked</a>, and the <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/1183/9781582701028">This Day</a> series, which collects diary