My primary experience with writers' groups have been academic, which are different animals. So I'm seeking some suggestions about what you liked or disliked about groups you currently/used to belong to. What worked? What didn't? Were ground rules set up before you began? Was everyone at the same stage of experience as a writer, or was there a mix of novices and published authors?

The first one I was in was serious. They had a connection to a local junior college English department and from their small budget they sponsored a writing contest for school kids once a year. I kept up with them for awhile but in the end it was further than I wanted to drive and the participants wrote about things that I just wasn't interested in. This was once a month. Copies of work were passed out. Whomever submitted work was on a list to read and be critiqued next time.

I thought I'd start one closer to home: by gosh, at my house. I put up a sign in the local book shop and fashioned what I had learned from the last group. I got 6 return calls of interest and 3 people actually showed up. We each brought a poem to be read at the first meeting. We also brought copies of a short story or chapter depending on our work. At the first meeting we exchanged these and agreed at the second meeting we would go around with our comments and critiques. We agreed on a time schedule. For us, we agreed to meet every two weeks. This was a mistake. We decided to rotate homes and each host/hostess would provide tea and coffee or cookies when it was at their house.

It was rough and didn't last long. The original three were so exhausing I never really did much to enlarge the circle. In the end the participants weren't serious. One writer wanted all the attention and time of the others and was insensitive or better yet, ego only without much good reason. When it was her turn to host the meeting, first she was sick and couldn't do it, for her second turn she announced she was getting a divorce--then she wasn't--then it was for sure and she just could not participate. One other participant was so stressed from a new job that the time to work on writing just wasn't there. The other was a true beginner, we're talking no real fundamentals and not a lot to offer back. All this aside, one person had to keep it on track. I was doing more organizing and hand holding then work on my own writing. I decided to let go.

Then I found Hatrack.

SUGGESTION: Set a time and be there. I found once a month worked well. Go to a local junior college or other place likely to be interested already in your idea. Start a once a month "Gathering Of Artists" at your home as a feeder group. Start a "Gathering of Writers" at your home. I found the method of passing out work and talking about it one month later was much more helpful than reading work at the meeting. Reading work at the meeting didn't allow for much reflection. Some folks become crazed when they speak their own words: Beware. A potluck or free beer might draw more folks than tea and cookies. Learn how to be a good facilitator. From the SFFW roster you might be able to identify some folks in your area--BG

One thing that needs to happen is for there to be a moderator for the meetings... extremely important.

As for the levels of the writers, you are bound to get pretty much every level, including people that you have no idea why they are even in a writing group. -- I have seen this with in-person groups as well as internet groups.

One thing to keep in mind is that everyone learns differently, and everyone takes criticism differently. A good idea is when the items are being discussed for the writer to just sit back and try to digest what is being said - not to try and defend their story as the critiques are flowing. This can lead to the readers still "not getting it", but it will help the writer in trying to make a clearer story.

One of the biggest problems that I have seen and heard quite a few times is that the readers might not be - in fact often aren't the same readers who will be picking up someones story from the book store. However, having groups like this can still help by allowing the writer to see where there are big holes or even where something doesn't work, for whatever reason. It is then the writers responsibility to go back and make the story work, yet still be theirs.

We read works at the meetings. I think I agree with whoever it was said above that this isn't the ideal way of doing it. Apart from anything else, with a group of any size it means that you probably won't get time to read an entire short story / chapter, because with twenty people turning up you'll get at least five wanting to read something, and that would turn into reading 25,000 words which would take up much more time than most people would want to sit around listening...

But the good thing about a group this size is that you will get a broad spectrum of different people. We have pretty much every kind of writer you can imagine at our group - published or unpublished, non-fiction and most popular forms of fiction (although we seem to have a heavy slant towards detective fiction) and poetry, experienced and inexperienced writers. We get everything you could want :-)

I find that having a large group isn't tremendously important. Most often, after three or four opinions, you start hearing the same critiques again and again. I do think it is helpful to keep focused on one genre and format. If you are there to sharpen your SF short stories, you don't want to be involved with people who want help polishing their heartfelt love poems or autobiographies.