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The Veterans Writing Group
One of the largest military communities on the west coast with close to 380,000 military active-duty and veterans call San Diego County home. The Veterans Writing Group, San Diego County supports activeduty, military veterans, and family members in the passionate pursuit of “writing” and “telling” our stories. We are military veterans learning to write about our experiences. Membership is free. At monthly meetings the writers express themselves through the art of writing in any style: poetry, personal essay or short story, fiction and more.
WHO WE ARE
We are active duty or military veterans, and family members who write, or aspire to write. Our members span all conflicts, services, and eras supporting each other’s writing and experiences. We have the “fight to get home” desire to help each other achieve our writing goals. We write for many reasons. Mostly, we come together for personal and professional growth, comradery or just to share...We do this, with the help of professional mentors, industry leaders and guest speakers that help us learn more writing skills. Most importantly, get connect. Veterans of all writing skill levels are welcome to learn, share, and writing their story.
WHAT WE DO
We meet at the Veterans Association of North County (VANC), in Oceanside the third Saturday each month to share our experiences through the act and art of writing. Not all of us in the group started with the ability to write. One member claims he is the worst writer. He says, “To this day, it takes me three days to write one paragraph.” From the mind, through the pen and on to paper, writing can be cathartic for military people. Our group’s artistic expression of writing falls in line with other skills of imagination, that employ creative characteristics, like painting, theatre, music, and dance. The act of writing allows the person to convey unique military experiences through the art or storytelling.
THE VWG STORY
Founded in 2010, the VWG monthly meetings were held at the Oceanside Library, Mission Branch. Fast forward to 2012. We moved the meetings to the VANC located in the old Police Department building on Mission Ave. Our mission is to strive to help each other write our stories as well as provide entertainment to our readers and members. We trust our writing will help readers understand “the military active duty and veteran’s experience” through “their stories.”
A PERSONAL STORY
“I joined the Veterans’ Writing Group via Zoom just as COVID-19’s claws were strangling our abilities to safely meet in person. As a novice writer, each week I have had many opportunities to learn this craft. One unexpected benefit is that I am learning how to critique other people’s work. I recently used this new skill by providing constructive feedback on both story line content and grammar for my granddaughter’s college application essays. Thank you VWG! I can’t wait to meet all of you in person one day.” ~ Sue Steven
OUTREACH PROGRAMS & EVENTS
The Veterans Writing Group outreach campaign desires to connect to as many communities as possible. A new and important effort is the women’s writing subgroup which started in 2019 focusing exclusively on the unique military woman’s experience. Additional outreach includes presentations that have been conducted at several locations about our writing group’s mission. In 2018 we briefed approximately 100 sailors and ship personnel in the hangar bay aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway. Annually, collaborating with Mira Costa
College in Oceanside, we ask active duty, or military veteran, college students to submit a short story to compete for scholarships. Recently, April 2022, we presented an overview of our writing group to the quarterly Arts Commission Committee meeting in Oceanside. Literature and writing fall into the category of Visual Arts using creative writing expression. Oceanside is considered an Art District and our writing group is nested under that art umbrella.
Each copy we sell of these deeply personal and intimately relatable works allows us to donate two copies to veterans’ organizations, military hospitals and clinics, local libraries, and USO’s to help our fellow veterans and family heal and grow from our shared experiences. Our stories are sometimes hilarious, at other times heart wrenching, but always ring true and are unique to military members who sacrificed, volunteered, and served our country faithfully.
Veterans Writing Group of San Diego County are veterans, military family, supporters, and mentors helping one another tell our stories and grow as authors. All are welcome. We all have a story to tell.
Join us. Let’s write together!
The Veteran’s Writing Group of San Diego County has published four anthology books: Away for the Holidays, LISTEN UP! Things I Learned from the Military, Stories That Must BeTold, and AT EASE! Now That I have Time to Think About It, which can
be purchased from Amazon (direct link at our website) www.VeteransWritingGroup.org.
Social Media Connections www.veteranswritinggroup.org
Facebook - @VWGSDCounty Twitter - @VWG_SDCounty
www.Courage2Call.org
