I’ve decided that I’d like to either form or join a small writing group. I’ve been reading and hearing about the various experiences that people have with them (good and bad) and I can’t help but feel that this would be a good thing to be part of.
With the right group, it would be an encouragement to write and the feedback would be useful. Giving my own critique is a valuable skill to learn. Learning to receive critique would be a priceless skill to learn as well. Ideally, it would be great to have a group of 4 or 5 writers with similar aspirations getting together for an afternoon/evening maybe once a month and helping each other progress and reach goals.
Sadly, the friends that I would love to form a group with have extremely hectic schedules and/or the logistics don’t quite mesh. I’m not really enthused about meeting with a group of complete strangers (there aren’t many writer oriented events on my radar that I could attend to expand my social circles).
As a last resort, I think I’ll try and form an online group, but I find this loses the immediacy of something local.
I guess I’ll start looking.
The Basement Office 
I hear ya on this. I recently joined my local writer’s association and am working up the nerve to participate in a critique group. The stranger thing bugs me – but then I remind myself that if I meet my goals, my primary readers will ALL be strangers. Still, I miss my college days, when writer’s groups fell into place over beers with fellow students in my creative writing classes …