ENID, Okla. (KFOR) – Every serious writer has their own unique methods, their own work habits for the discipline it takes to get a good story onto the pages of a published work.

Paula Benge does a lot of her writing over coffee and gelato at a local shop in Enid.

Dan Biby does his writing at his house in an office he decorated just for that purpose.

Peggy Chambers prefers composing from an oversize chair in a spare bedroom – no desk, just a laptop and a little quiet.

“I’ve got two novels started right now,” says Peggy. “I’ve got twelve published so I’m always writing something new.”

All three are accomplished writers with articles and several books to their collective names.

But each has something else in common, a local club that goes back to 1923 and a notion that even solitary writers might be able to help each other.

Benge says, “Every week we meet and we talk about things. They know my characters.”

“Our group is very cooperative, very supportive,” echoes Biby.

Of this club, Chambers claims, “Everything I’ve published they’ve had a hand in.”

Back in 1923, when Northern Oklahoma College (NOC) had one campus in Tonkawa and Phillips University’s main building was still years away from destruction in a fire, the first Enid Writers Club met to compare notes and enjoy each others literate company.

“A hundred years is a long time for anything,” Dan Biby smiles.

Marshall Hall, now on the NOC campus, wasn’t constructed until 1947, but to mark their first century the very same writers club, that still meets once a week, got together to celebrate their friendship by unveiling a plaque near the very spot where they first compared notes.

“Everybody in our club loves to write,” Peggy insists. “But they’re good people and they care about each other and that’s the important part.”

A dedicated writer can accomplish a lot over a hundred years; articles, books, poems, and short stories.

Some of the best Writers Club work has been published as a group.

Putting a whole century together in one volume might fill Marshall Hall itself.

For more information on the Club or to see samples of their group efforts go to the Enid Writers Club website.