Two seats available going into August of
- My writing group, Spring Valley Writers Workshop is looking for new members serious about writing. Everything is conducted by zoom. You get in-document feedback and verbal discussion. This is not a beginner group but if you know the basics and have the drive to adapt and learn we'll help you catch up. Much of the writing philosophy captured in the Auth-mentors space is practiced in our group in terms of the feedback we provide to each other. This is a working group. You present stuff you hope to publish. We try to make everyone successful. Click here for a PDF of the group guidelines: FAQ -------- Are there fees?
- No, we don't charge. Period. Your contribution and participation are what make it work. Your time and energy have value. We get it. This is a two-way road mind you. As a consequence, you are expected to make a reasonable effort to contribute on a steady basis. More than a few of us have 9-to-5 jobs, turn out work, review others, and fully participate. We allow for planned vacations and special occasions, just communicate. Family emergencies happen, just say so. If this commitment sounds too onerous then the group probably isn't a good fit.
Can just anyone join? - No. There is a vetting process. You submit up to 3500 words. You will get a written review. The review will be like what you would get during a biweekly session. This is basically for me to know if you will get destroyed or not. Nobody in our group is mean, but some people have very thin skin and don't handle criticism well. So, this is where we suss that out. If you aren't prepared to review and help other writers, then this might not be a good fit for you.
If the review doesn't make you cry (I'm half-serious about this ... ) and you want to give the whole thing a whirl then you get registered with all the stuff. How does it work? - Submissions are queued in a google docs folder. For instance: Meeting20240113, You drop your document for review into the folder with the format: <firstname><lastname initial>_MyBookTitle_01_DONTEDITME Ex: WillG_ShapeStealerConspiracy_30_DONTEDITME The DONTEDITME indicates this is the author's original submission. Reviewers make a copy in the same folder (or download and use inline reviewing). They make their comments on that document. Ex: WillG_ShapeStealerConspiracy_30_<reviewer initials> Here's an example folder screenshot for a meeting : This allows the author to know at a glance who reviewed.
Also, since all this material is archived it allows the reviewers to see what each other did. On the Saturday of the meeting, each presenter provides a setup of what they were trying to accomplish and any specific questions they are attempting to resolve from the consensus. Discussion ensues. We try to keep it focused on higher-level story and character progression.
Nuts and bolts should be in the review doc. How much time does it take? - Expect to review anywhere between 10 and 50k words per each two week period. So, depending on how fast you can review and comment, will affect your time investment. Please note, since this is quid pro quo, that if you just gloss over without offering something helpful, then expect that to be paid forward. You get back what you put in. The meetings start at 9am PST and generally run about 4 hours. Since we have members everywhere from +7 GST to +0 GST (U.K.) we try not to keep our European members up too late. What about poetry? - Uh, not so much? Got nothing against poetry.
I just suck at reviewing and guidance. Hard to moderate when I know so little about the niche. It's so subjective, I don't know how to be fair to the creative. With prose, I can comment on structure, on character, world-building and plot. What other support is there? - We have a discussion list where you can interact with the group and share problems and successes. We occasionally get successful industry pros to come and give talks. Michael Grumley did a shop with us about how he transitioned from self-publishing to being picked up by MacMillan... gave us lots of good marketing guidance and such. How do I get more info? - Email at the address in the flyer or scan the QR code.