This is how we run the group: the rules and guidelines that we follow to keep the group functioning smoothly.
Membership
- We can only allow adults (i.e. eighteen years or older) to attend meetings. There are no other membership criteria—the group welcomes anybody who writes speculative fiction.
- Membership is free. There are no fees, recurring or otherwise.
- Don’t just turn up! Get in touch first. You’ll need copies of everyone’s work or you won’t have a clue what we’re talking about.
- We ask that you come to one meeting before you submit any work to be critiqued, so you can get a feel for whether the group is for you.
- As a first time attendee, you don’t have to critique work if you don’t want to, but if you do, we’re happy to listen.
What We Critique
- We critique novel or novella chapters, short stories, flash fiction, and screenplays.
- We only critique speculative fiction. See our Definition of Speculative Fiction.
- We don’t critique work that has already gained publication.
- We’re adults and open-minded about blood and gore, sexual content, profanity and political views. We will not allow work that sets out to offend other people.
- We don’t critique erotica, but an erotic scene in a speculative fiction piece is acceptable if it’s essential for the story.
- We don’t allow plagiarism. Fan-fiction is fine, but you should make sure everyone realises you’re writing fan fiction.
Submission Process
- There’s a 4,000-word limit for each submitted piece.
- If your story is longer than 4,000 words, then you have three options:
- If it’s a handful of words over 4,000 (i.e. less than a hundred words over) we will accept it.
- Edit it down to less than 4,000 words.
- Split it into 4,000-word sections and submit them over several meetings.
- If you have several short pieces of work that total less than 4,000 words (flash fiction, for example) you can submit them together in a single Word document.
- If your story is longer than 4,000 words, then you have three options:
- There’s an overall limit of four submissions per meeting.
- Each attendee can only submit one piece at a time.
- Prior to each meeting, submissions are shared via the dedicated #subs channel of the group Discord server.
- Submit your work to #subs a week before the meeting.
- We will accept late submissions, up to the Friday before the meeting, but can’t guarantee to critique them.
- Don’t remove work from #subs after you’ve submitted. If you think you might miss a meeting after you’ve submitted, leave your work in #subs and let us know—we will critique it at the next meeting.
- Don’t re-submit work that the group has critiqued. That includes work that you’ve edited or rewritten.
Formatting
See Manuscript Formatting for the rules we expect submissions to follow.
Critique System
- The Group uses the Milford System for critiques.
- We don’t read pieces aloud on the night.
- We don’t apply the rule that ‘No one can attend or comment who doesn’t bring a story.’
- We also have a slightly complicated system for deciding whose work gets critiqued first (see #8 below).
- Everyone reads all the work in advance and then presents their critiques at the meeting, whether that’s in person or online.
- Everyone gets their turn to speak and respects the other attendees’ turns. There is no discussion or debate during critiques. Everyone’s opinion is valid and we respect it.
- We insist critiques are constructive and focussed on helping the author of the piece improve it – we support people. They need to know what works as well as what doesn’t. See this article for tips on critiquing other people’s writing.
- After everyone has delivered their critique, the author responds, explains, and answers questions raised. Again, this is not an opportunity for a debate. See this article for tips on having your writing critiqued.
- We’re non-political and discourage critiques based on anything other than literary merit.
- We encourage attendees to provide an annotated copy of each author’s submission.
- Hard copies, PDFs, Word Docs and other common document formats are all acceptable.
- Typos and nitpicks are best left to this line-edited copy rather than gone through during the meeting.
- We critique as many pieces as time allows. To decide the order, we critique:
- Submissions carried over from the previous meeting.
- New submissions from writers who had nothing critiqued at the previous meeting.
- All remaining submissions.
Rule Breaking
If you break the rules, we will remove your submission from #subs and send you a direct message explaining why. If you continue to break the rules, we will ask you to find a more suitable writers’ group.
You can also read some legal stuff about the group (privacy policy, etc.) here