Reply #4: Will report, after seeing colleagues in person this summer

[carolinayellowdog]

The basic problem, as I see it, is really insuperable. Non-fiction writers critique one another's research, evidence, and reasoning very generously. But as for appraising one's writing-- it just doesn't happen in my experience. In many years of writing, I've gotten all the encouragement and support *as a researcher and scholar* that I could possibly ask for. But the mutual support in the writing craft that I see here and in various real-life groups does seem to be a special preserve of fiction writers, poets, etc. Nonetheless it will be pleasurable to set up a ning network of fellow researchers in related subjects, even knowing that it will never be a "writer's group" in the sense discussed here.