Post a description of the kind of group you want to start that gives kind of writing by marketing category and type.

Examples:

fantasy novel

science fiction screenplay

literary short stories

personal essays

poetry and short fiction

science fiction and fantasy only, all lengths

Please also specify what you do not want to include.

Example:

no R-rated stories

no romance

no mysteries

no science fiction or fantasy

no children's fiction

Post the email address you would like people to use to contact you--nameatdomaindotcom (see Kathleen's email addresses below).

Anyone who is interested in joining your group must have participated in the Fragments and Feedback area here and they must contact you in email--no posting that you are interested in this topic. They must give you their username here on Hatrack, at the very least, though their real name (or part of it) would also be good.

You may then pick up to five people from those who email you and notify Kathleen (via email at workshopatburgoynedotcom or Dalton-Woodburyatsffdotnet) who is in your group (give Kathleen their email addresses and Hatrack usernames--she will check to make sure the email addresses actually match the Hatrack username--if they don't match, we will have to get an explanation from the person claiming the username).

Then email those who were not chosen and thank them. Tell them that you have enough people in your group now and wish them well in finding their own group.

call me utah. my email is utah1692@yahoo.com.

Nice to meet you, as it were (via Computer). I too would like to form a group. My ideas of a group match your brief, but eloquent, criteria. You can reach me at pocolian@aol.com

Basic rule for the group is: every member submits and every member critiques. the goal of this group is to produce at least one finished publishable piece per member.

Hostile behavior, arguing, flaming, insults etc will not be tolerated.

Because we are working with short fiction the cycle should go something like this:

You submit a piece.

You recieve critiques

you give critiques

you rewrite and resubmit for critiques (as needed to bring your text up to publishing standards)

you critique again

you craft your query letter and submission
letter, including plot summary, story summary, and 500 words description. you submit your letters for comment by the group (hopefully we will find errors or enhance the letter's effectiveness)No personal information (such as phone, address, etc) will be shared between members.

you submit the story for one last read for minor critiques.

you perform a final read thru for others works

we begin sending to markets.

The cycle starts again with a new group of writers. Of course older members may choose to stay.

I think this group should be limited to five or less members.

Interested email me at jbskaggs@hotmail.com

JBSkaggs, your group sounds like the type that I would prefer. I did try to send you an email, twice. Please let me know if you are interested.

I have participated in several writing groups in the past, but I have been out of it for about 2 years. I have never sold anything, but I have had a few good nibbles, from professional editors/magazines and Writers of the Future, where I just missed the final cut.

If this group isn't available, then I would be willing to join any group where the readers and writers are actively participating, so, anyone who reads this can feel free to send me an email.

Thanks,

If you want to join a critique group, OR FORM ONE, then I suggest you look on this board, and the other similar boards, and contact each AND all the other people who have posted here, asking about groups.

This means you should contact each other, and put in the effort to make it work. DON'T just depend on people to come looking for you.

I have found that members in most functioning groups do not spend time looking around here. They are too busy writing. So, if you want things to work, you have to MAKE it work for yourselves.

I posted here and nobody answered me. So, I took the time to go through the posts and contact each person that I could.

I found a few groups that were functioning, but no longer in need of new members.

I found groups that had gone defunct and whose members weren't interested in continuing, for now.

AND, I found one group that wasn't exactly looking for members, but who were happy to have me join (and another person I had contacted from here, who came in with me) so now we have 6 members.

I also STARTED a new group, consisting entirely of people I contacted here and people who THEY brought in, so our new group now has 7 members. None of these people had been in a group before.

Do not bother to contact me on this, the two groups I am participating in (yes I am doing two) do not need any more members now. However, THIS is how you should go about finding or starting groups, in my opinion.

If you are interested, TAKE THE INITIATIVE.

DO post here, so that others, who are doing the same thing, can find you. But take it a step beyond that.

Good luck,

I don't particularly care if I'm joining a group or creating one, as long as I'm involved in one. Therefore, I'm posting to both threads.

I'm looking for one of two types of group. Either poetry or science fiction and fantasy only, all lengths.

Again:

Poetry (including short fiction is acceptable)

Or

Science fiction and fantasy only, all lengths

Sorry, I don't have the time to commit to critiqueing Jordanesque novels

The group would critique completed novels 70-150k words with some leniancy at both ends. It would also do chapter and short story review but the focus would be on whole novel length works.

I only read and write fantasy and science fantasy, so I would limit it to that genre.

I am looking for a group size of 6-10 eventually and 4 to start.

The criteria for joining would be:
* A completed 1st (or later) draft fantasy novel of 70-200k words.
* Time and willingness to constructively critique every other member's novels.
* Critiques of shorter works and chapter work would be on a 'do unto others...' basis.