At these meetings, you'll find enthusiastic writers who are interested in giving and receiving encouraging but constructive feedback on works-in-progress.
The primary purpose of this group is to improve our drafts by reading our work to the group and listening with an open mind to the group's feedback. This is a give-and-take process; your feedback to others is as valuable as your own work. We ask that newcomers sit in on the group for one session before sharing to get a feel for how we do things and determine if this group will be useful to them.
The secondary purpose of this group is to form a strong community of local fiction writers that support and encourage each other to achieve their writing goals.
General Guidelines
- New attendees must live in the Tampa Bay area.
- Please arrive about ten minutes before the start of the meeting, especially if you're new or want feedback.
- We read short stories, novel excerpts, memoir, and poetry.
- Work must be written for a general audience and contain little profanity, sex, drug use, or graphic violence (think PG-13).
Feedback Procedure
- Each presenter gets 1 minute to set up the context of their work (plot overview and what kind of feedback they want) and 8 minutes to read a portion of their work.
- This is followed by a discussion during which each attendee is given three minutes to voice their thoughts about the story. Newcomers are encouraged to give feedback if they wish.
- When getting feedback, resist the urge to defend your work. If you don't agree with the feedback, just let it go.
These are general guidelines that may change slightly from meeting to meeting as this group constantly evolves to match the needs of the writers in it.
