WANT TO FORM A NEW CRITIQUE GROUP?
Perhaps the Montana Writers’ Guild (MWG) critique groups currently in existence don’t meet your needs, or they aren’t taking new members at this time. Maybe you don’t live in Missoula! Or maybe you’d like to start a group with a specific focus, like literary fiction, non-fiction or poetry.
WHAT A GREAT IDEA!
The MWG wants to host as many critique groups as possible. The advantages to having your critique group under the MWG umbrella include notification of workshops and anthology projects, and the Guild often serves as the contact group for people in Missoula who are looking for writing groups to join.
Here are the basic steps involved in starting a critique group:
- Join the Montana Writers’ Guild if you haven’t already done so.
- Have Nona Babcock, the Guild’s treasurer, mail out a notice to all MWG members that you want to start a new critique group. Include details about what kind of writing you want members of the group to be doing and your contact information (e-mail address or phone number, usually). Some MWG members may live in your city, if you’re not from Missoula.
- Run a notice in the Missoulian and the Missoula Independent (or your local paper) announcing that you are looking for poets, essayists, non-fiction writers, or whatever – or just that you’re forming a writing critique group. Most papers have an arts section that runs weekly, at least, that lets you run a notice for free. As a Guild member, you can run the notice under the Guild name. Include your contact information! Here’s an example:
The Montana Writers’ Guild is forming a
new (type of writing?) critique group in (city).
If you’re interested, contact (your name) for
Information at (e-mail or phone number).
You may have to run the ad for several weeks.
- Put up flyers in suitable places, like your local library and bookstores. Coffee shops are also a great place to put up flyers, if they allow it, as writers sometimes work there. Also, ask local bookstores if they know of anyone who’s interested in joining a writing group – and give them your name or business card so they can give information to anyone who asks in the future.
- A critique group does not have to be large; three people is a sufficient number. Eight is probably the upper limit, especially if you only meet once or twice a month.
- Once you have some members, you need to discuss the way you want to run the group.
- First, decide how often you want to meet, and when you want to meet. You may even want to set up a regular meeting place. Some bookstores and most libraries have rooms or areas you can reserve for meetings. So do some coffee shops. Or, if you want, you can meet in each other’s homes. Also, will you accept members who can’t make every meeting?
- Some groups are very formal; members hand out copies of their work at a meeting, and read it at the next, after the group members have had a chance to read and write comments on it. Some groups are very informal, with writers reading their work aloud and discussing it afterwards. Handing out copies, however, is a good idea, so people can write down comments they might not think of on the spot.
- Set any group rules. For example, the first rule of every critique group should be that comments are constructive criticism. This means that you make suggestions about how to improve the other person’s work in as positive a manner as possible. For example, instead of saying something like, “Either Irene is the stupidest person alive, or your plot is completely unrealistic,” you say something like, “I’m a little confused about why Irene goes back into the store when she knows Andrew is going to shoot all his other hostages.” It is also important to point out things that have been particularly well done, or to talk about how much you enjoyed hearing or reading people’s work. Other rules are up to each group, but it’s easiest to have as few rules as possible. You want people to enjoy coming to your group, after all.
- Most importantly, don’t be discouraged if you aren’t overwhelmed with people calling you immediately wanting to join. It may take a couple of tries to get a group going.
- Once you get your group together and have held a couple of meetings to shake out arrangements, let people know about the Guild. You can have people in your critique group who aren’t interested in becoming Guild members. Not everybody may want to join. But the group can still be part of the Guild as long as one person is a Guild member in good standing (which just means you paid your $12 dues for the year).
Good luck! If you need further advice, email