trinityvixen | Writing Club

Carrie and I started a community (which I'm going to trust she'll post to in response to this) for original pieces of fiction.

I'm inviting folks reading this to join in and post to it, but, beyond that, I also wanted to gauge interest/enthusiasm for a possible writing club that meets in person.

Here's what I'm thinking: I like the workshop format, whereby one, two, maybe three members of the club produce a short piece of fiction, a poem, a prose poem, a scene from a play, something along those lines, and brings copies to the place where a meeting will be held. The copies will be distributed to members present, they'll be given time to read it and mark it up with suggestions, corrections, comments, criticisms, and witticisms. I think meeting places should vary, though whoever is the fiction contributor probably shouldn't host (unless they want to). If people don't want to meet in apartments, we can see about random congregations at Columbia, Lerner or perhaps McIntosh (since you don't need IDs to get in there).

Also, 'fiction' is relative, as is 'short.' If people want to write an entire chapter of an autobiography, this would be completely acceptable. Essays, journal-style articles, rants, raves, and reviews. It need not be finished, it can be a rough draft, it can be just about anything. If you want, you can write a really nice paragraph, outline character sketches and backgrounds for a play/novel just to get feeling about them, or you can bring drawings that you want to use to narrate a graphic novel. Collabortation is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, and, maybe, we can find ways to bring writers together for creations.

One side note: I would prefer *ORIGINAL* entries. This is a group that will focus on spurring your own ideas, your own creativity. However, I know a lot of you are fanfiction fans and writers. I will allow fanfiction pitch sessions and presentations, and, of course, you can meet up with collaborators and work with them on your own time. I only ask that you make an effort to present your own work, featuring your characters and not those borrowed from a fandom not of your own creation. A good guideline would be to aim not to present fanfic (unless any who want to join are so prolific that that's where they focus 90% of their writing energy) more than 1 out of four-five times that you present to the group.

Criteria for joining the club are few and are as follows:
1) You must give advance warning if you know you won't be able to bring a piece on your assigned day. This saves scrambling around. I will say a week's warning would be preferable.

2) You must bring enough copies for everyone. If this is hardship, depending on size, I will be able to make some copies at my work. I *cannot* make copies of 40-page chapters for everyone, but if that's what you want to present, I recommend e-mailing copies to people. In this case, an e-mail list will be set up for everyone, either informally or with a service like yahoogroups.

3) You must be present when your work is discussed. If an author doesn't show, there's no way to run this, is there?

4) At some point, you must be willing to supply the group with adequate snacks/beverages even if the meeting isn't held at your place. This is merely a comfort thing, providing snacks to make the time pass more pleasureably, and it does not require cooking skill (believe me, I am the last person who would make that a requirement). Nothing too expensive or lavish, though you should keep in mind dietary restrictions of the people attending (that means not bringing meat if particularly offensive to vegetarians; avoiding food allergies to the best of your ability/knowledge; religious observances to the best of your knowledge). Make your own restrictions known, but keep in mind that this is supposed to be an easy contribution every so often, so try not to make demands (ie saying 'no pork, I keep kosher' is fine, saying 'I refuse to eat chocolate because I want peanut butter m&ms instead' is not). This will be easiest for all.

5) You must provide some commentary/critique for authors' contributions. Otherwise, what's the point? We won't keep attendance, but if you only show up your night and none other (and you're not otherwise necessarily away for the usually understandable reasons), it's bad form. So, show up as often as you can and be prepared to engage with the presentation. You don't have to speak if you don't want (thought I imagine that won't be a problem with the group reading this), but please mark the copy given you or, at very least, e-mail the author. The point is to provide help and praise, two things every reader needs.

6) You must provide CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms. Any purely mean-spirited remarks will result in you not being welcome to share your opinion or your work. If you have a problem with a member's remarks, settle it between yourselves. Don't bring baggage to the group, please. However, I understand if you have a problem with judging a genre--take for example, me: I hate poetry. But I'll read it, I'll critique it, I won't let my dislike of the form overpower my responsibility to provide critique. I just might not have as much to say and might not be that helpful, but I will try. If you have similar problems with format, genres, etc, it's okay. Just say what you can that's not subjective and otherwise just let it pass. (And please don't take my preferences to mean you can't write poetry. Write it, really, I mean it. I will be good. I've done this before.)

Hopefully, that covers just about everything concern-wise. Ask your questions, I'll figure out answers. I'm not running the show, though, just getting it started. Once we get going, it'll be a mutually owned thing, and I think we'll all have a lot of fun.

So, sound off why don't you?