Writers Critique Group
Next Meeting: 3rd Thursday at 7:00 pm
(FYI: We are currently closed to new participants. Please feel free to sign up for our newsletter if you would like to receive information about future critique groups and meetings when we resume our regular operations in September 2021.)
**Please RSVP and submit writing to: critique@theroomtowrite.org
- Please submit writing only after reading and following submission guidelines
- Please read critique feedback guidelines before you start critiquing any written work
- RSVP and submit a writing sample 3 weeks prior to each meeting
- Writing should be approximately 10-minutes or 10-pages of reading
- Writing will be distributed 2 weeks prior to each meeting
- Please feel welcome to bring a sweet or savory snack to share if you would like :)
Adult writers at all levels and of all genres are welcome to RSVP and submit writing for the next Writers’ Critique Group meeting by Thursday, April 30th. Please submit writing that is 10-minutes or 10-pages to: critique@theroomtowrite.org.
The meeting will be held in the Teen Room at the Boys & Girls Club of Wakefield (ground floor of the Civic Center) at 467 Main Street, Wakefield MA. (Park in lot or on street and enter side door on field side.) Go in the side door: straight to the wall, go right and straight to the next wall and the double doors to the Teen Room are on the left.
Nervous about participating and submitted a writing sample?
No worries. You are welcome to come to a meeting to see how it works and submit your writing for the following month if you would like to join in and we are not at capacity for members. We try to keep submissions to no more than six per month to keep meetings manageable. The goal is to critique writing constructively while paying due respect to the writer and the work. We are not an intimidating group and hope to create a place where writers feel safe to share their craft and improve upon it in a supportive environment.
Critique Groups are open to members and non-members alike.
The Writers Critique Group meets the 3rd Thursday of every month at 7:00pm in the Boys & Girls Club of Wakefield Location: Ground Floor of the Americal Civic Center, 467 Main Street, Wakefield, MA 01880 (park in lot or on street and enter side door)
Congratulations to Linda Malcolm (center--holding her book), who is a steady member of our group, on her debut publication Cornfields to Codfish. Find out more about her and her book HERE.
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August, September, and so on and on . . .
This critique group has anywhere between 5 to 7 members attending each month. It has quickly evolved into a steady support that provides both motivation to the writers involved to produce new work and edit past work in preparation for each monthly meeting as well as some good, solid feedback from a variety of perspectives. It is clear why other writers tell fellow writers who want to get serious about their writing, in no uncertain terms, to join a critique group. Great advice!
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July 20, 2017
This was our first working critique group meeting and it went as smoothly as we could have hoped. Let's hope this is a sign for things to come. Six writers submitted writing to be critiqued, which included one essay, two children's picture book texts and a chapter from three novels. In addition to the six writers who submitted writing, three writers attended to bring the total to nine writers in one room ready to work and to support each other. Not bad for a Thursday smack dab in the middle of summer.
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June 15, 2017
The very first meeting of the Writers' Critique Group was a great start to something that will become an important resource for local writers. Six writers participated on the 15th while several others, who were unable to be present at June's meeting, plan to participate in future meetings. We each introduced ourselves and discussed submission guidelines, critiquing guidelines and the format of our future meetings.
Since The Room to Write holds periodic Meet & Greets in an effort to get to know our fellow writers and illustrators, socializing will not be the focus of the Writers' Critique Group meetings. These meetings will be working meetings where we sit down, say a quick hello to everyone, gather some snacks and get to work. We want these meetings to be productive for writers. Participants are more than welcome to socialize after the critique is complete, but the primary focus of these meetings will be to receive valuable feedback and to improve our writing.
The group talked about genre and decided that we are open to all genres--barring the extreme and repetitive violent type. If your writing is something that is overly violent, constantly obscene or focuses primarily on human misery in its worst forms, this group is not for you. We also mentioned that poetry may be a difficult one as well. Although we did not decide to exclude poetry as a genre since often a poem can be the jumping off point or the context for a great children's picture book. Writers are welcome to submit poetry, but this may not be the most instructive group for critiquing poetry. For additional poetry critique options I highly recommend the MA State Poetry Society and North Shore Poets' Forum.
A big thank you to each of the writers who participated in the first meeting. You got this group off on the right foot and contributed to the forming of what I believe will be a welcoming, instructive and diverse group of writers with various perspectives from which to offer insight into individual pieces of writing. A good critique group is instrumental to the creation of great writing. Thank you Bill, Ginny, Maureen, Angela and Dom! See you all on July 20th.
