This week marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, known better among its constituents as NaNoWriMo. Not so much a competition as a test of dedication, participants work to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Libraries and coffee shops are stormed for regular “write-ins,” inner editors are silenced, and household chores are abandoned in the pursuit of the 1,667-word daily requirement.

For writers who are looking for a slower pace to create their literary works, there’s the Shoreline Writers Group.

Unlike NaNoWriMo, the Shoreline Writers Group is a year-round affair in which local people can submit segments of their own work and read and provide feedback for others. The monthly meetings are held at the Waterford Public Library, and four pieces are read and critiqued each month.

Alison Downs of Groton, who founded the group in September 2014 and currently works as a paraprofessional, said she started her writing career with “The Fruit Lady” at age four.

“I’ve been writing since forever,” she said. “I guess my mother was kind of into it when I was little, so I must’ve picked it up from her, and I’ve always been really into reading, and I guess they just go hand in hand.”

Downs pursued creative writing in high school and college and had a small writing group in Enfield, but when she moved to Groton, there weren’t any established writing groups, so she started her own. Many of the members were not writers by trade but rather wrote in their spare time, found Downs through a Meetup group. The group celebrated its one year anniversary at the Sept. 3 meeting with cupcakes.

At the Oct. 1 meeting, members provided feedback to a holiday-themed segment of a memoir submitted by Linda English of New London, a retiree who works part-time as a makeup artist.

“I really liked when you wrote, ‘You want a visual of this? Ok,’” Sarah Anderson of Groton, a Pfizer employee by day, said. She added that it was easy to read the passage in English’s voice.

“That’s funny, because I took it out,” Downs said. Everyone laughed.

As the only non-fiction selection of the night, most of the memoir feedback was based on honing English’s author voice and clarifying scenes that she had experienced. At the end, she said she appreciated the group’s feedback because it’s both honest and respectful.

Even though members might be writing multiple stories at a given time, they submit segments of one story at a time so other members are reading the next part of the same story each month.

“The consistency here is important because I’m writing a long book,” said Paul Corteville of Madison, who works part time as a freelance ghost writer. “It’s really good that a lot of them have read most of it.”

Downs is hoping to expand the group in the future by offering open mic nights, guest speakers, and a publication of some of the shorter works shared at the meetings. She said it’s easy to lose motivation as a writer, but the group provides some accountability and members’ works have shown a lot of progress in the past year.

As for NaNoWriMo, the Shoreline Writers Group doesn’t necessarily sponsor write-ins or other activities related to the event, but members have participated in the past. Corteville said NaNoWriMo can be difficult to schedule around, but he participated last year and will likely do it again this year. For English, the event was a good way to get started in writing.

“I did it three years ago, and it was the catalyst that really got me writing,” she said, adding that her current writing projects now take up too much time for her to participate in NaNoWriMo. “I appreciate the fact that it’s out there, and it’s a marvelous way to get going.”

The group meets the first Thursday of every month at the Waterford Public Library.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411