All-purpose Writing Group (Spec Fic leaning) • Last activity 21/Dec

This is a long-term combo accountability, critique, writing development, and “being an author” discussion group with the ultimate goal of helping all members become better writers. We lean towards speculative fiction, but if you’re willing to work with spec fic authors even though you aren’t one, you’re welcome to join. Hard line on the sexual content being implied rather than explicit in all submissions.

Expectations:

All group members will post about their “author activity” twice a month. This could include actual writing, submissions, marketing, research, etc.--just tell us what you did as an author during the first/second half of the month. Then, encourage those who seem to be struggling, praise those who are making progress, and celebrate with those who have successes.

Critiques:

While this is a critique group, we do not do chapter-by-chapter critiques within the group. Everyone within the group has solid critique partners with whom they already do this (but there is the potential to spin off smaller critique groups with members in this group. Having said that, we are an all-purpose critique group. Share anything you’d like feedback on (short of your whole book). Whether you’re working on an idea for a story, developing an outline, struggling with a particular dialogue, putting together a query letter, requesting reviews, writing a primer on your magic system because everyone says it’s too complicated (oh, that might just be me…), share it with the group and we’ll give you feedback. Be sure in the submission comments to let us know what you’re looking for. If you’re sharing an outline, let us know you want developmental feedback, not copy editing. Or, if you’re struggling with a particular scene, share that with us so we can zero in on it.

Writing development:

Post about interesting things you’ve learned, valuable resources you’ve come across, books/courses/videos you’ve discovered. The goal is to help each other become a better writer. That will happen when we each take the time to actually write, get and give feedback on our writing, and learn more about what makes good writing good (and how to do it).

Background:

I came to Inked Voices hoping to find a long-term group of people that works together on all aspects of writing and being an author (honestly, I'd love to get 20 years out from now and have deep connections with several successful authors who have all "grown up" working with one another here). So far it seems I can find that here, but only by joining several different groups with different rules and different expectations. That level of interaction and participation is a little intimidating to me. So, I decided to create this group that will hopefully provide everything I’m looking for in one group.

Adult

Children's

Admissions Policies

Everyone who has the same goals as the group and is willing to participate will be admitted. If the group gets unwieldy, we'll split up into smaller groups--ideally putting together people with whom they work best from the original group.

What we're looking for in members

Writers who are committed to writing for the long-term, who will be active participants and will support and encourage one another. As stated above, the primary target group member will write speculative fiction (scifi, fantasy, horror, things where the rules that govern our universe don't fully apply), but others are welcome.

Inactivity Policy

If you don't post for a month, we'll reach out to confirm you still want to be a member of the group.