You’ve joined a bookish mastermind group so now what?
The group is yours to make of it what you will. And as with anything, you’ll get what you put into it. Think of all that these famous groups accomplished {not that your goals need be as lofty as theirs, but who knows?}:
The Inklings consisted of several successful authors and poets including C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield. We may never have had the privilege of reading The Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings had it not been for these men meeting and philosophizing!
The Lost Generation made up of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein and more. The moniker was given to the group by Gertrude Stein and used by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises. Though the group did not meet consistently their influence on each other is apparent.
Algonquin Round Table consisted of Dorothy Parker, Harpo Marx, Robert Benchley and other New York critics, reporters, and writers. Meeting daily for lunch over a ten year period helped to solidify the individual members in their respective careers. Known for their practical jokes and biting wit they affectionately called their group ‘The Vicious Circle.’
The Nine Old Men of Disney animators. Considered Disney legends these nine animators created several beloved movies from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to one of my personal all-time favorites The Rescuers. What these men accomplished in their mastermind group is the thing legends are made of.
The Braintrust of Pixar Films. This group of animators created beloved movie Toy Story and most recently Inside Out. Popularizing the use of storyboarding this group has accomplished much. They epitomize the effort and work of mastermind groups without falling into just another social group.
The Bloomsbury Group with Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, and John Maynard Keynes and several others. They frequently met between about 1907 and 1930 at the houses of Clive and Vanessa Bell and of Vanessa’s brother and sister, Adrian and Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf) in the Bloomsbury district of London. They frequently discussed aesthetic and philosophical questions and were strongly influenced by G.E. Moore’s Principia Ethica (1903).
A few famous mastermind groups to emulate for #bloggiestaI imagine the faces that sat around the table in these groups could not have imagined all they would accomplish thanks in part to their discussions. The same holds true for our groups – the expectation is NOT that you will join a mastermind group and automatically become a world-renowned blogger; the intent is to join a group and become the best version of yourself as a blogger that you can be, and while doing so, that you in turn, help those in your group.
For this Bloggiesta challenge, you have 4 assignments.
- Complete the worksheet you received in the welcome email prior to ‘meeting’ your group.
- Contact your fellow group members within 3 days of receiving welcome email.
- Share your goals with each other and establish a method of communication + initial meeting time.
- Go forth and prosper.
What do you think of bookish mastermind groups? Have you joined one yet?
Any literary circles I should add to the list above?
