Online Writing Groups - Different Genres

[Rowan]

This post was inspired by a recent thread. A lot of people seem to be looking for someone to brainstorm with or get feedback from, as in not a typical beta project swap relationship. For some, establishing a baseline rapport with your fellow writers is necessary before they're comfortable sharing a full manuscript. Or sometimes, as Hankleton said, you just want to bounce ideas around and get differing perspectives.

And not everyone is comfortable posting on an open forum. To each their own.

Having said that, what about creating online critique groups? Someone can organize the master list, collect e-mail addresses, and send them to the others in the group. We could open up separate threads for each genre: "Writing Group for YA Authors" or "Writing Group for Commercial Fiction" etc. and so forth to measure interest. The groups can be small (3-4 members) or much larger.

Your participation would be up to you--brainstorming, writing mechanics help, exchanging ideas on any and all writing topics. There's always the possibility of developing beta partnerships too.

I find it more beneficial to bounce ideas off fellow writers versus my friends and family. While the latter don't mind helping, they just don't get it and often tire of my questions. (Or so it seems.)

Anyway, this is just an idea!

[Ton Lew Lepsnaci]

Have a look at AW's critique circles (European and American). These have been running for some time on AW. Not sure if that is what you are looking for, but it is a start.

[Rowan]

Thanks, TNL.
I'm not actually looking but noticed a lot of the recent posts in here were by people looking for "brainstorming" partners. So this is basically a brainstorming thread.

[heyheymse]

I would love to find a YA and/or historical fiction writing group I could bounce ideas off of. If you're going to try to organize something like this, I would definitely participate!

[Hankleton]

I love this idea.

I'd up up for being part of a group within my genre. This forum is awesome for offering new perspectives on ideas, but it would be great to really delve into the idea and expand and develop it. I think a small writing group would be a great way to do that.

[dogsrus]

This sounds like an interesting idea. I'm new to forums (my tech skills are like zero), live out in the country, and "feel so alone out here." A small writing group would be ideal for refreshing my outlook and generating enthusiasm. Count me in.

[sunandshadow]

A brainstorming group and/or plot outline exchange might be cool, but calling it a critique group is a bit confusing if the main activity isn't going to be reading other people's writing and critiquing that. I specifically wouldn't want to join a group where I'd have to critique others' pages of manuscript since I never have pages of my own that I want critiqued. Probably the question is irrelevant to me, though; as a writer of SF erotica I've found there are a limited number of people interested in (and old enough to) brainstorm that kind of content or critique my outlines.

[Rowan]

Again, your level of participation would be up to you. If you're just up for brainstorming, that's fine. The idea of critiquing or beta reading is something I feel may develop over time. If not, that's fine too. The group is there to bounce ideas off of, work through sticky plot issues, inspire your creativity, etc. and so forth.

Okay, so let's talk details.

We can have as many different groups as necessary. Let's start a list:

• Young Adult: Rowan, heyheymse, Bing Zabriskie, Ellielle, Trisha, Krissy Reynolds, A. C. Thomas, ThatKnight64, Mike_Gasaway
• Commercial Adult Fiction (Mainstream/Contemporary): Bushrat, Bing Zabriskie, Hankleton
• Fantasy (Urban/Contemporary) & Science Fiction: Rowan, Reziac, Ellielle, WriteMinded, Xaenyth, simonalexander2005, Ergodic Mage
• Erotica
• Children's Literature (MG): A. C. Thomas, ThatKnight64
• Mystery/Crime Drama/Police Procedural: Rowan, Bushrat, Chase , Hankleton
• Historical Fiction: heyheymse, Bushrat
• Romance: Hankleton
• Horror
• Memoir: Bushrat

Let me know your genre(s) of interest and I'll add your names to the list! Also let me know if there are any other genres you want included.

ETA: If we don't get a lot of interest, we can always have a multi-genre group. I read across genres as I'm sure others do as well, and brainstorming is well, brainstorming. It might actually help to get ideas outside of your genre. What do you guys think? Maybe if we make it one big group, the subject line could designate the genre, ie., Romance: Character help. Then the members could choose to read or ignore. Or something.

[Bushrat]

You can add me under Commercial Adult (I guess that would be Mainstream/Contemporary, right?), Mystery/Crime and Historical. And if you want to add memoir, I'd be up for that as well

[Reziac]

Maybe this can be over in SYW like the "Fight Scene Club" (in the SF/F section) so folks can post fragments that other folks can bang around to help generate progress -- specifically NOT for critique, but rather for "but what if" thoughts.

[I can tell ya myself, THE single most useful writing goad I've found is thrashing ideas back and forth with interested readers. Conversely, traditional betas don't do much for me.]

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Maybe this can be over in SYW like the "Fight Scene Club" (in the SF/F section) so folks can post fragments that other folks can bang around to help generate progress -- specifically NOT for critique, but rather for "but what if" thoughts.

[I can tell ya myself, THE single most useful writing goad I've found is thrashing ideas back and forth with interested readers. Conversely, traditional betas don't do much for me.]

Posting online is great for some but it's not for everyone. That's why I'm proposing an e-mail group. You can share as much or as little as you want and as stated previously, participate as much as you want.

I personally have a couple of writers I communicate with via e-mail and it's incredibly helpful. People who want to share ideas online (AW) can check out the Sandbox or the "Fight Scene Club" as Reziac suggested.

[Reziac]

Ah, okay, that works too... I've mostly used email for such stuff myself, both in groups and pairs. Anyway if this gets going, I do SF/F.

[And I didn't even remember The Sandbox exists! ]

[Ton Lew Lepsnaci]

I'm unclear on the purpose. What does brainstorming mean in this context? Is it a situation where you don't have an idea yet of where to take your story and want to get feedback on possible avenues (i.e. pre-draft brainstorming)? Or is it a critique group situation where you discuss different paths readers might suggest for the plot (leading to rewrites)? It would be good to get a firmer idea of what the purpose is. If it is simply critiquing via email rather than online, such groups already exist on AW (not to imply no new ones should emerge + I like the idea of grouping it per genre, if possible).

[Bing Zabriskie]

*signing up for Young Adult and Contemporary*

But how do you manage a group with, say, a dozen or more participants, via email?

[Rowan]

Okay, my idea of "brainstorming" is to bounce ideas off other writers. So, TNL, to answer your question: both.

Let's say you are writing a police procedural and are trying to work out a drug bust scene. You know how you want it to go down but you're not sure if x, y, or z works. So you bounce those ideas off your writing partners. Or you have an idea for a story but you're not sure if it will work. We all have different backgrounds and perspectives so it's a chance to chat with other writers and get fresh ideas. I do it quite frequently with two other writers, one in my genre and one in another genre.

I'm really not trying to make this complicated.

As for how to manage the groups via e-mail, it's quite simple. Let's say there are 4 writers in the YA group. One writer wants to bounce an idea off the others so s/he sends out a group message. If you can help, you respond. ETA: We can also limit the groups to X number of members or have more than one group per genre.

Another option would be to create closed groups ("invite only") on Facebook but that would probably work better for larger groups.

[Ton Lew Lepsnaci]

Ok.

[Ellielle]

I am interested in giving this a try.

Sign me up (tentatively) for the YA and SFF groups, please.

[Hankleton]

Put me down for adult commercial, mystery/crime and romance.

[trisha]

I would love to be part of the YA group. Can you sign me up?

[Hankleton]

What do people think about establishing a private chat room for genres. Groups can arrange a time weekly, daily, whatever for an online catch up. Could be a good way to develop ideas, work through issues in our works..

Another option is using something like msn. If someone in your genre is on when you're stuck, you can ask instantly for ideas.

I like the idea of email groups too though, as well as the above suggestions.

[Krissy Reynolds]

Definitely interested in this!!

Sign me up for YA please

[A.C. Thomas]

I'm interested for sure. YA and MG for me please

[Rowan]

For larger groups, "invite only" Facebook groups would work along with e-mail. We can decide on the format once we know the numbers.

[Reziac]

Not for me, I don't do facebook. And there's no real privacy on facebook, either.

[Rowan]

YA:

• heyheymse
• Bing Zabriskie
• Ellielle
• Trisha
• Krissy Reynolds
• A. C. Thomas
• Rowan
• ThatKnight64
• Mike_Gasaway

Commercial/Mainstream:

• Bushrat
• Bing Zabriskie
• Hankleton

Mystery/Crime Drama/Police Procedural:

• Rowan
• Bushrat
• Chase
• Hankleton

Fantasy & SciFi:

• Rowan
• Reziac
• Ellielle
• WriteMinded
• Xaenyth
• simonalexander2005
• Ergodic Mage

Children's Literature (MG):

• A. C. Thomas
• ThatKnight64

Please send me the e-mail you want to use for your groups.

I'm sure we'll get more interest for the other genres!
ETA: As soon as I have all the e-mail addresses, I'll send out intro messages to all group members.