Do you belong to one? Do people in your group discuss their stories in detail, specifically looking for ways to expand them, fill them out? From your own writing experience or from what you’re told by other writers, do such discussions help any individual writer in this particular way?
Last edited by The Backward OX; 05-07-2010 at 12:14 PM.
We have a workshop as part of the creative writing course at uni and, while it was a touch too short and overly abbreviated to fit into the time we had, I found it really helpful. I've never had that many people actually having an objective look at something I've written. It was interesting, the way some folk came up with things I never even thought of, and people criticizing things from a viewpoint I hadn't considered.
If you're asking because you're not sure if you want to get involved, I'd say go for it. At the end of the day you still need to go with what you think, but it never hurts to get a few more opinions on it.
Real life? I thought you lived in Australia.
One of the first things I did when I moved here was to seek out a group. I was fortunate in that one of the members of my group in Rottenchester lived here and could both recommend one and provide an introduction as such groups are numerous but not necessarily geared to my genre and/or age group/level of success as a writer.
The group gather on a biweekly basis to discuss one story each session. We tear the story into little bits and talk about the bits. Then we slap the writer around some. After that are drinks and commiseration, and eats.
It's extremely helpful in that the critiques are miles beyond anything you can get online, and rarely nasty. Just as complete as possible. There are eight people in my group, and all of us have published at least short stories.
The Motley Press- Your WF Ezine
I blogged today. Did you?
"From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it." - Groucho Marx
I joined a group in my area about two years ago. Our simple basic rule requires us to submit one chapter each month for critique and we each provide feedback. This gives me five detailed reviews on my chapter, while I do five reviews of others' work, an investment of about 10-12 hours a month. Our structure presumes completion of a manuscript every 12 months for submission to literary agents. My group members are all experienced authors with an average of three traditinoally published books each. One woman has twelve books in print in the romance novel genre. I am the only member who did not have any published novels before joining. They accepted me because of my long history of writing magazine articles for a natinal outdoors magazine. Acceptance is by unanomous vote. Removal fromt he group is automatic for ethical violations like plagiarism or sharing confidential member writing with non-members. Removal can also be effected by three votes of "no confidence", just in case someone is inappropriate in behavior or irresponsible in providing timely crits.
I would love to see this website offer such a structured place for private groups to enjoy the same kind of writer support. I find the structured writing pace, feedback from accomplished writers and mutual respect for writing ethics immensely beneficial.
Haha. It's easy to see Lin's back.Originally Posted by lin
yes, we generally hang out in seedy bars and exchange work
talk, laugh, drink and then philosophy and then argue
some lucky sports end up going home together
and have sex ... it is useful? i dunno
but it sure is lot's of fun
:p
Good to see you, myte.
I'd take exception to this as well, but I'm late for the kangaroo into town.
I belong to two groups. One is for fiction in general and the other is specifically a novel incubator. It seems to help us. Actually, having accountability attached to critiquing is as helpful as anything else. I think I've learned more from giving critiques than from getting crits.
"I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."-- Marilyn Monroe
Would you care to give some further details regarding a novel incubator? It sounds fascinating.
If we're leaning towards getting involved in some form of online critique group, I wouldn't mind signing up for that. Just be warned - I have no talent for brevity. The short story I've nearly finished is clocking in at around 4500 words, when it was meant to only be 3000. I blame Word's incessant desire that I put a space between words. ThisIsPerfectlyLegitimateWritingDamnYou!
Our Novel Incubator is a group of 9 novelists, all but two of us are published in genre fiction (under aliases), with aspirations for general fiction publication under our own names. We meet twice a month. One chapter of a novel is up at each meeting. Everyone gets a hard copy of the chapter up for review and makes notes directly on it. Nothing is sacred; we care more about the work than we do the feelings for the author. (This was a unanimous group decision).
When we started the group, we all began with chapter 1 of the novel we wanted to workshop. It is a responsibility of each person to keep up with the stories of all the books. Everyone stays on the same page.
Two weeks after we are given a hard copy of Mary Writer's chapter, we all meet again, and have a lively discussion of the chapter in question, with a tape recorder running. The most important thing for us in this discussion is that Mary Writer has NO VOICE in this discussion. She is the proverbial fly on the wall. She cannot justify, explain, tell us what she meant to get across in that part. She can't even scream, "You idiots just don't get it!" Essentially, the same way she won't be able to justify, explain or expand on anything to an agent/publisher/bookbuyer who reads the manuscript. After we have reduced poor Mary to quivering shards of literate protoplasm, the chapter by John Novelist for the next meeting is handed out and everybody goes out somewhere for coffee/wine/beer/tea and then Mary can tell us all the things she couldn't say before, but she already has her tape of the discussion and everybody's hard copy of the chapter with the notes.
Last edited by RomanticRose; 05-09-2010 at 03:51 AM. Reason: because i need sleep and forgot a damn word.
"I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."-- Marilyn Monroe
I LOVE the way RomanticRose described how her group works!
I found this thread because I am trying to find the write IRL writing group for me. I realized I'm never going to get anywhere alone. I need deadlines, feedback, accountability. Anyway. Can anyone help me figure out how to find an IRL group? I've searched all the writing organizations I can find in my area only to discover that they either want me to pay per meeting (not in the budget) or they aren't meeting in my area (like the closest one is an hour drive) or they only have lecture style meetings (not anything where you share your work or progress). I've considered starting my own group, but I only know one other writer and she's too busy traveling to join any group.
Suggestions??
Starting your own group might be the way to go. Your situation, location-wise, sounds very like mine. But who knows how many other aspiring writers might be hiding nearby? If I was 20 years younger, it’s what I’d do, in my present location. You could place notices on community notice boards and/or try the Editor of your local rag for a free “advertorial” type of announcement.
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