Writing Groups and Roundtables?

I have a local group, and found a couple of the members right here. I found another on ScriptFrenzy, another couple on NaNo, and have recently been contacted by someone who got my name from the Big Atlanta Club that I've been a member of for a couple of years.

What you have to do is reach out. The roundtable might be worth it if it makes you some friends who will continue with you (fee-free) beyond the sessions. Look for a major club in the closest city; they often have critque group pods that meet all over the metro area. Go to the big meetings, let people know what you want. You'll often get it.

My Big Club charges dues, but my little local group doesn't cost anything but time. It took about 6mos to find the first member, then within six more months, we had five more.

Hey Dreams,

Looks like you're fairly new here, so first off...Hello and welcome to AW.

I host a once a month critique group in my home. I don't know if you have a large pool to work within or not. I'm lucky to live in a city with an absolutely thriving writing community. I'm part of a writing circle consisting of approximately 250 people. About 3 years ago I couldn't find a critique group to get into, so I decided to put the word out that I would start one. Within a week I had a group of 8 writers willing to sit down and discuss meeting once a month for critiquing sessions. We have been going strong since then. What we do is at each meeting 4 people bring 8-10 pages of a work in progress...enough copies for all members. They distribute them and then we go around the table discussing the critiques we've done on the prior month's hand ins. We have a set of critiquing guidelines that we adhere to and we have grown to respect and trust one another greatly. This set up means that each month we have to critique 4 excerpts. At the meetings we openly discuss the 4 excerpts on the table...and prior to discussing it the one being critiqued reads 1 page of their work...I find this helps a lot too, to hear the work in the writer's voice. If you have an opportunity to organize something like this, and enough people interested in participating, I highly recommend this method. As long as all members understand the guidelines and you respect each other, it works well. It's the best thing I've ever done for my writing.


Oh, and nobody pays. These 7 people in the group with me are amazingly good in their critiquing abilities. It's amazing to see how critiques are mirrored every month. What's most beneficial is when 7 people point out the same problems or positives in a piece...it speaks to the writer, makes them open to the criticism.

Good luck finding what you're looking for.

Hi Kelly. I probably shouldn't be responding to your post because I don't have a good answer. I got lucky in finding a group through the Florida Writers Association - I don't know if there are any Wisconsin organizations. But I wanted to say hi 'cause I checked out your website and it looks like you've done a lot. Way to go and good luck!

Siddow said:

It took about 6mos to find the first member, then within six more months, we had five more.

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Interesting. In other words, you were essentially the founder? I'm fairly sure my town doesn't have a group, and I've been tossing around in my mind the idea of trying to form one.

I'd be really interested to get any feedback about forming a group, and what kind of format/frequency etc your meetings take. Any unusual activities you've thought up, particular problems you've encountered etc.

Anyone who feels they might be able to steer me on the right path, please PM. I'd really appreciate.

akiwiguy said:

Interesting. In other words, you were essentially the founder? I'm fairly sure my town doesn't have a group, and I've been tossing around in my mind the idea of trying to form one.

I'd be really interested to get any feedback about forming a group, and what kind of format/frequency etc your meetings take. Any unusual activities you've thought up, particular problems you've encountered etc.

Anyone who feels they might be able to steer me on the right path, please PM. I'd really appreciate.

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See my above post. (-;

For me, it was an easy email campaign...but I have also organized writing events where I made posters to distribute at my local libraries, grocery stores, etc. I find that there are always people who want to write. If you put up notices, you may be surprised. I've formed great friendships with my critique partners. For us, it is just how I described it above...but I was also in another writing group that met once a month at one of the local libraries to actually write on the spot. That one was great, too. All you need is willing participants, a stop clock and somewhere to meet. We would do 10 minute timed writings either from props or word prompts. Then, once the alarm went, we would go around the table reading what we wrote. The rule was, since it was written in the moment, that we would only feed back with the lines that resonated the most with the listeners. I often sat around that table with my mouth hanging open...so shocked by the high quality of writing that came out of these on the spot jumps.

There are so many different ways a group of writers can get together and mingle. For me, the on the spot and the critique group were the most fulfilling.

KTC said:

See my above post. (-;

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Laughs, thanks KTC. I just noticed there were three simultaneous posts. Thanks for your help.

If you have any questions about organizing one, I'd be happy to answer them if I can. Mine has been going strong and all 8 are always quick to say it's the best time of the month for them. (-; Whatever we're doing, we're doing it right.

I've done this in three ways:
1. I asked for volunteers in my industry and among my potential audience to review an early version of my work. Specifically, the first chapter of my book. I figured if I can't grab them in the first chapter, I'm sunk. Their advice was priceless. After getting an agent and a publisher, I threw a morning coffee/thank you party. Cost = $100 for treats and gift cards to show my appreciation.

2. My very good friend enrolled me, as a very special gift, in a shut up and write boot camp, which was extremely motivating. I met cool people, got to read amazing writing, and yes, shared my few pages of work. The experience was worth my time and while I couldn't personally afford the $350, it is the most treasured gift I've received in a decade.

3. After that experience, I enrolled in a $90 roundtable group (which required the boot camp as a pre-req) and I received so much valuable advice. I felt bad for the incredible authors who also enrolled because of the dozen or so writers in the group, about three of us were newbies and the more seasoned folks really did us a favor. I'm not sure how much I actually contributed to the experienced writers' works but they sure gave me my money's worth in critiques.

#2 and #3 were lead by a professional facilitator that I found through word of mouth. #1 couldn't last forever because I realized it wasn't fair to burden my friends and colleagues with continuing requests for favors and in the end I needed help with craft, not content.

hope this helps.

Dreamsofnever: Yes, I found the big one by searching online. "Big City+writers+group"

akiwiguy: I was looking for a local group, and started by asking at the library, lurking in the 808 section, visiting coffee shops and checking out the bulletin boards, doing lots of google searching and blog searching, posting in things like craigslist, etc...and finally found a local woman who was looking for the same thing. So we met up, and since then I've just kept my eye out for other writers in the area and contacting them to see if they're interested in joining us.

My Big Club charges dues, but my little local group doesn't cost anything but time. It took about 6mos to find the first member, then within six more months, we had five more.

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How did you go about getting members?

I have one writers club within a few miles but...they weren't all that helpful. They weren't looking for publication, the critiques, if you got one, were extremely vague ie. you shouldn't have any humourous lines in a non humour novel ( !), or 'it was ok I suppose'. They wren't working on novels, or anything for outside the group, only writing something for that months subject. Probably the fact they were all in their eighties and middle/upper class and I turned up on a motorbike in full leathers didn't help matters that much either....Basically we weren't the right fit.

So I'd love to start one up. But how exactly? Any suggestions?

My crit group formed when I took a writing course at the local community college. A bunch of us liked each other's work and decided to form a group. Simple as that. We've been meeting once a month for almost three years.

I found my group, which had been together for several years, through a newsletter put out by one of our local writing organization (Willamette Writers).

We meet twice a month for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, depending on how many people have pages. We email the pages a week ahead of time to everyone so that they can be critiqued, and then we go over them at the meeting. Genre/length is not an issue - we have people writing short stories, essays, memoirs, novels, and everything from literary to epic fantasy.

When a new person starts, we do it on a three-meeting trial period, so that both the existing members and the new person have a chance to evaluate if it's a good fit.

Because everyone runs into periods when they aren't available (family issues, illnesses, vacations, etc.) we've found that four members is too few, because if just one is gone, each person is getting the feedback of only two others. We try to keep our active membership at six, which means that there are usually at least four at the meetings. And even when there are six, we still have enough time to go over each piece thoroughly.

IdiotsRUs said:

How did you go about getting members?

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Whenever I saw someone on here who had GA listed as their location, I'd PM them to ask if they were in my area, were they interested in a group. We got two members from here, and one of them brought a friend.

(If you are in GA and I didn't PM you, it's because you revealed your location somewhere and I knew you weren't near me)

(If I haven't contacted you and you live near Cumming, GA, pm me!)

I also looked in my regional lounge at nanowrimo and sent messages to people I thought might fit. Two members came from there.

I haven't had much luck snagging people from the big group. The one guy who contacted me wants to hold meetings in his home. Problem is, I don't know him...so I'm not going to his house. I invited him to come to our last meeting to meet us, but he declined, said it was 'too public' (we meet at a restaurant). Uh, public is the point when it comes to meeting people you only know from teh intarwebs, dummy!

We're a pretty relaxed group. Send something in for crit if you want to. We talk about goals and markets and resources, discuss problems in our manuscripts even if they're not being read, brainstorm, encourage each other, etc. It's fun.

Ok Siddow, lets see.

Anyone else from Sussex, UK here?



Unfortunately most of the writing sites I know of are mainly US, which makes it tricky. Even those that have a mainly UK membership, the members are miles away. I tried advertising at the library but no joy. *sighs* oh well, try try and try again....

I found this list of groups in/around Sussex:

*BEXHILL WRITERS’ GROUP
The Secretary, 30 Glassenbury Drive, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex TN40 2NY


*CAMBERLEY WRITERS CIRCLE
The Secretary 195 Frimley Green Road, Frimley Green, Camberley, Surrey GU16 6JY


*CHOBHAM WRITERS
The Secretary, 195 Frimley Green Road, Frimley Green, Camberley, Surrey GU16 6JY


*Deal Writers
The Secretary, 68 Park Avenue, Deal, Kent CT14 9AW.
Email: [email protected]


*EX LIBRIS
The Secretary, Farnham Library, 28 West Street, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8UL


*GUILDFORD WRITERS
The Secretary, 19 Woodlands Park, Merrow, Guildford, Surrey GU1 2TH
Email: [email protected]


*HASTINGS WRITERS GROUP
The Secretary, 39 Emmanuel Road, Hastings. TN34 3LB
Tel: 01424 421283


*LEWES U3A WRITING WORKSHOP
The Secretary, 18 Cleve Terrace, Lewes BN7 IJJ


*Petersfield Writers Workshop
The Secretary, please communicate by email or phone 0783 431 6040
Email: [email protected]


*Serious Scribblers
The Secretary, 2 College Court, Northcliffe Road, Bognor Regis, West Sussex PO22 8PL


*Sheherazade
The Secretary, 12 Ledger Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 2UF
Email: [email protected]


*Tenterden Writers' Oblong
The Secretary, 1 Budds Cottages, Wittersham, Tenterden, Kent TN30 7EL


*THAMESIDE WRITERS
The Secretary, Kyrenia, West Grove, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 5PE


*UCKFIELD AND DISTRICT WRITERS’ CLUB
The Secretary, 101 Rocks Park Road, Uckfield, E. Sussex TN22 2BD


*WALTON WORDSMITHS
The Secretary, 27 Braycourt Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 2AZ
Email: [email protected]


*WOKING WRITERS' CIRCLE:
The Secretary, Lanreath, 1 Delta Road, Chobham, Surrey GU24 8PY

Found them here:http://www.nawg.co.uk/Directory.htm#region8

I hope one works for you!

Nice site. I have actually considered several of those.

But they are miles away from me If I actually had some transport currently I'd go for it. However due to public transport being so terrible round here, a two hour crit session would take up about half a day - not so practical with babysitters and stuff to consider.

The perils of living in a small market town.

I may give a couple a ring and see if maybe I could get a lift. Once I've plucked up the courage anyway....

Thanks for looking, it was very kind of you.

Hastings Writer's Group probably isn't the best fit for a spec fiction writer looking for critiques. They're not really aimed that way.

I'm in one based in London. We meet monthly for a Saturday afternoon in a pub (private room) and crit up to 3 stories which have been emailed out during the previous month. It's a good system, and the quality of my writing has gone up immeasurably since then. I get to read some pretty varied stuff from other people too.

We also have a weekly evening meet-up where we bring laptops or whatever and just sit and write for an hour or two before powering down and getting some food and drink. The lack of distractions really makes it worthwhile, and it's a good after-work social too.

T.