Hey, I admit I'm envious. I harbor fantasies about someone coming along and asking me to join a group blog, a place where I only have to post once a week and where everyone is so talented and witty that I know by being included in the mix they think I'm talented and witty too. A girl can dream, right?

There are lots of group blogs out there in writerdom. Some are good, others not so good. At least one is so horribly self-congratulatory and full of self-love that I not only never go there anymore, I have developed an aversion to those authors' books. If I buy their books, they will continue to self-congratulate and engage in group hugs and I just can't stand the thought that my meager pennies have contributed to their narcissism. Perhaps they are truly nice people and my assessment is unfair, but them's the breaks.

Two group blogs I really enjoy: Murder She Writes and The Lipstick Chronicles. There are also some blogs by newly published and unpublished writers that are darn good too.

So what is it that makes a successful group blog?

Over at MSW, they pick a theme for the week and everyone posts on it. I like the discussions that ensue. At TLC, I don't believe there is a theme, just whatever the blogger of the day feels like talking about. That blog works because the women are all talented and witty and can bring an interesting spin to whatever topic each has chosen to talk about. (Who could ever forget the famous bl*wjob discussion?)

Writeminded is a fairly new group blog, and I've been checking it out. Just yesterday, Jan Kenny talked about trends, which was my topic of the day as well. πŸ™‚

It seems as if the successful groups have a variety of writers, as in the types of things the writers write about. Self-love is kept to a minimum. Let's face it, the last thing any of us want to read about is a bestselling author's love of herself and her work. No, we love it when a successful author shares with us how her process is no different than our process, how she sometimes hates her words and thinks she's untalented, and how in spite of all that she succeeds and writes books we don't mind buying because a) they're good and b) she's one of us, in spite of her success. I'll help that author all the way to the bank because she doesn't think she's better than me.

In reality, her work may be so much better than mine that I never have a prayer of writing anything half so good. But so long as she doesn't make me feel that way, I'll keep reading her and recommending her to others.

What else makes for a successful group blog? Romancing the Blog is great, but less the sort of group blog I'm thinking about. The Smart Bitches are fabulous, but they're more reader oriented.

So what do you think makes a great group blog? And if you got any tips on how I can get invited into one, let me know. I'll offer up a room in Hawaii, and a tour guide. Uh, no, I'm not desperate. Why do you ask? πŸ™‚