Writers Groups: How the Heck Do I Find One?
Exactly fourteen years, two months, and twenty-nine days ago, I joined the Untitled Writers Group. If I may shout our own praises for a moment, we’re one of the longest-running, most successful...
View ArticleWriters Groups: Expectations
Last week we talked about how to find or create a writers group. This week, we’re moving on to a big bugbear: expectation. What exactly do you expect to get out of your writers group? This is a major...
View ArticleWriters Groups: Da Rulez
Writers groups need rules. Really. Oh, people might call them “group norms” or “guidelines” or “our little ways,” but in the end, they’re rules. I do get asked how the Untitled Writers Group runs its...
View ArticleGetting Everyone to Participate in Writers’ Groups
You know how groups work. A chunk of people want to do as little as possible. A chunk of people are willing to volunteer now and then. And a few people end up running the show because they step...
View ArticleIt seemed like a good idea at the time: The Slushpile Smackdown
As someone who spent many years filling slushpiles and was, indeed, discovered in one, I like to keep abreast of slushpile innovations. One such innovation is slushpile self-selection. The traditional...
View ArticleClarion Write-A-Thon 2010
I’m participating in the “Write-A-Thon” to benefit the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop this year. The workshop branch I’m supporting is what I refer to as “Clarion Regular,” which is the...
View ArticleTell Me What You Really Think: Evolving Critiques
Years ago, I was a member of an ongoing writer’s group and co-founder of another. When I joined, I had no idea how to give or receive a critique. I learned by listening and by doing, and occasionally...
View ArticleWriting Groups and Writers, a Match Made in Heaven or Hell?
by Sherwood Smith That was the provocative topic for a panel recently. The description went like this: Many consider critiques from their writers’ group a valuable part of their submission process....
View ArticleDon’t Crush That Writer! (Hand Me the Duct Tape) – One
At a recent science fiction convention, I was on a panel about critique groups. We started by sharing horror stories. I had the singular honor of having the most horrific in the room. I once mentored a...
View ArticleDon’t Crush That Writer (Hand Me the Duct Tape) – Three
Last time I talked about some of the responsibilities the members of a critique group or writers’ workshop had to the writer whose work they were critiquing. This time, I’d like to address the...
View ArticleSupporting a New Writer: Connecting
Effie Seiberg: Depending on what kind of writing you’re doing, and where you are geographically, there are a number of ways to find kindred spirits. Conventions: Whether conventions or conferences, I...
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