OPEN:

Group Size Limit: 6-8

Genre(s): All Genres Welcome

Message from Host: I’m looking to build a strong group where folks feed off one another, encourage one another, give ideas to one another, dare I say, love one another and wish success on everyone involved. Think C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and the others in the Inkling's writers group and their relationships.

PLACE: In-person, Mountain View / Sunnyvale. First meeting at Specialty's at Ellis and 101 to start.

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: TBD. Proposing weekly. Late mornings or early afternoons (Midday).

Restrictions / Limitations: Exotica, steamy romance, and polarizing non-fiction topics will not be a good fit. Clean - PG-13. Works you can recommend to your grandkids and won't make you blush.

Potential Rules:‍ ‍Submission volume and timing will be determined early on, once the group is established. Approx 1500-2000 words submitted 7 days in advance. The volume and timing will depend on the number of active participants.

Approximate Starting Date: October 25, 2025

Group Size Limit: 10

OPEN

Genre(s): Fiction, Nonfiction, Speculative Fiction

For Fiction, frame the plot and setting as they impact imagined characters’ challenges.
For Nonfiction, substantiate the premise with current research and/or developments in progress. Examples: Positive and/or negative impact of AI applications; environmental benefits that genetic modification of plants suggest; social contract implications of dating apps; influences Big Pharma may have on neurophysiology, etc.

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration:  Weekly.
Day and time subject to preferences of the group: majority rules.

PLACE:  In person at Redwood City IHOP (Veterans Blvd at Whipple)
Open to alternate venues, as indicated by members' needs.

Restrictions / Limitations: No poetry. Word count: 1500 words per reading, due to time limits; segmentalize longer pieces accordingly. Explicit sex okay unless any group member is uncomfortable with it, therefore, to be a group decision.

Potential Rules:
1. As the reader, bring copies of your work for every attending member, so they can insert comments as you're reading, and then share aloud with the group.
2. As you critique, be prepared to alert the reader to anything you feel doesn't "work" -- grammar, mood, POV, enough or not enough tension, etc.
3. Be kind! A critique is not criticism but support. We’re writers helping writers, remember.

Approximate Starting Date: July 07, 2026

OPEN

Genre(s): Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

Group Size Limit: 4-8

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Weekly, Fridays 11:00 AM-1:00 PM

PLACE: In-Person, at Little Green: A Plant Bar, Redwood City

Restrictions / Limitations: Serious about the writing craft; working to publish.

Potential Rules: Must submit material at least five days in advance, approximate word limit is 3,000 words.

Approximate Starting Date: May 23, 2025

Group: OPEN to 1 member

Genre(s): Poetry

Group Size Limit: 3 - 5

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration: Monthly. Second Wednesday of every month @ 7:00 PM for 1.0 - 1.5 hours.

Where: Virtually on Zoom

Restrictions / Limitations: Poets should submit a piece of their work to read at each meeting they attend. Poems should be submitted to the group at least 24 hours ahead of the meeting to give others the chance to read and develop comments. Each participant will be expected to read one poem of their own as well as comment on the work of each of the others, with the exception of 1-2 initial meetings to observe and decide if they want to join the group.

Potential Rules: Criticism should be thoughtful and positive so that it is useful to the author. The group needs to be focused on helping one another and not just on giving feel good praise that does not lead to meaningful revision.

Feedback should take no more than 15 minutes including questions to the group from the author about particular concerns.

It is also helpful to have participants that are mostly regular in attendance.

I prefer a virtual format so people should know how to use Zoom.

Approximate Starting Date: 4/3/2023

Genre(s): Poetry

Group Size Limit: 4-10

Potential Meeting Frequency: Bi-monthly

Day, Time, & Duration: 1st and 3rd Wednesdays @7pm. 1.5 hours

PLACE: In person

Restrictions / Limitations: Member of CWC interested in poetry.

Potential Rules: Must submit material in advance of meeting, may be asked to read material during meeting, all criticism must be delivered with a positive, constructive spirit

Approximate Starting Date: November 07, 2024

OPEN for two more members

Genre(s): Mostly non fiction or creative non fiction.

Group Size Limit: 5 or 6

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration: First Tuesday of the month at 1 p.m.

Where: Virtual on Zoom

Restrictions / Limitations: We would like to evaluate, and be evaluated, by new members.

We like detailed and constructive feedback.

Potential Rules: We submit one week in advance. We edit and discuss the submissions--but do not read at the meetings. The word limit per submission is approximately 1200 words.

Approximate Starting Date: Ready for you now.

OPEN

Genre(s): Children’s Fiction (for ages 5 - 9)

Group Size Limit: 3 minimum, 5 maximum

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Monthly.

Second Tuesdays 7 - 8.30 PM

PLACE: Virtual

Restrictions / Limitations: Children's authors only.

Potential Rules: Must submit material 1 week in advance of meeting. Must read all submissions prior to meeting and have comments ready to share. Critique must be given in a positive and constructive spirit. The critique should provide sufficient detail so as to be actionable by the writer.

OPEN to 2 more members

Group Size Limit: 5

Genre(s): Literary fiction and mainstream contemporary fiction.

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration: Monthly on Monday from 7 to 9.30 pm

Where: Zoom

Restrictions / Limitations: Restricted exclusively to book-length prose (novels and memoirs). Standalone short stories, poetry, screenplays, and early first drafts are not accepted.

Potential Rules:
·       Submit up to 4,000 words strictly 7 days before the meeting.

·       Feedback focuses strictly on plot, pacing, and character logic. No line or copy editing.

·       Diagnose, don't prescribe. Find precisely where a scene stalls rather than offering solutions.

·       Respect the voice. Critique the author's execution, not their personal ideology or choice of character.

·       Review full protocols and application instructions on my website, SheenaOnThePage, under Critique before applying.

Approximate Starting Date: Operational since June 2023

Genre(s): Open to all genres. Currently we have nonfiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and criminal mystery.

Group Size Limit: 4

OPEN: We currently have three members and are open for one new participant.

Where: Virtual meeting.

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration: Once per month, the first Thursday of the month at 11:30 a.m. Meetings are for up to 2 hours depending on how many works are submitted for critique. We are open to changing that time to accommodate a new member.

Restrictions / Limitations: No restrictions.

Potential Rules: Always supportive! All critiques are given in a collegial spirit of support. We’re all trying to become better writers together.

- One piece from each member is critiqued per meeting, thus up to four pieces may be critiqued.

- Submitting a piece for critique is not required, but we strongly encourage members to attend and critique their peers’ work regardless of whether they themselves have a work to submit that month.

- Pieces should be 1,500 words or less. They can be complete, self-contained works or fragments of larger projects.

- Work should be submitted 2+ days before the group meets.

- Written critiques are sent to all members the day before the group meets.

- Each writer gets 30 minutes to talk about their work, to ask advice, to ask for input, to ask for suggestions or ideas etc. - anything that might be helpful to them.

Approximate Starting Date: Open and ready right now.

CLOSED

DAY & TIME: Second Monday of the month. 7.15 - 8.45 PM

REQUEST: When applying, in the About Yourself/Goals section of the Join a Group form, please include if you’ve taken any writing classes and/or worked with a professional editor, etc.  This group will not be the right fit for beginning writers.

Genre(s): Historical fiction (or other novels that have an intensive research component — biographies and contemporary novels with medical and technical research components, for eg.). No screenplays, graphic novels, poetry.

Group Size Limit: 5

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Second Mondays, 7:15-8:45 PM

PLACE: Virtual

Restrictions / Limitations: Prefer novelists who can share outline or beat sheet in addition to scenes or chapters.

Potential Rules: 1. Scenes or pieces to be shared at least 5 days before meetings.
2. Maximum 3,000 words.
3. Constructive comments, please.
4. Avoid arguments or defensiveness.
5. Each member will have a set time to lead discussion of their piece or seek general feedback.
Will discuss other possible rules by consensus of members at the initial meeting.

Approximate Starting Date: Late January or early February , 2025

Genre(s): Memoir only.

Group Size Limit: A minimum of three and a maximum of four.

Open to 2-3 new participants, who are actively writing their memoirs.

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Once every two weeks for 1.5 hours. Time and day to be determined by participants' schedules.

PLACE: Virtual, by Zoom.

Restrictions / Limitations: Experienced writers who are committed to writing and/or publishing a memoir.

Potential Rules: Material must be submitted in advance of the meeting. Participants review the submission in Microsoft Word and provide comments to the submitter before the meeting. Participants review the submission verbally in the meeting. Participants must be able to accept hearing constructive criticism. All constructive criticism must be delivered in a kind, constructive manner.

Approximate Starting Date: January 30, 2026

Genre(s): Memoir

Group Size Limit: 4 or 5

CLOSED

Potential Meeting Frequency: Wednesdays every other week

Starting Time & Duration: Wednesdays 9.30 - 11 AM

Where: Virtual on Zoom.

Restrictions / Limitations: Serious about the writing craft; working to publish.

Potential Rules: Submit up to 2500 words via e-mail by Sunday at 10 a.m. prior to meeting. Return with suggested changes by Tuesday. Read revised piece aloud at Wednesday meeting.

Approximate Starting Date: 3/25/2023

Genre(s): Memoir

Approximate Start Date: June 05, 2024

Group Size Limit: 4 to 6

Meeting Frequency, Time, & Duration: Every fourth Wednesday at 7.00 PM - 8.30 PM

PLACE: Virtual

Restrictions / Limitations: Negotiable

Potential Rules: Each group member may submit up to 10 pages per meeting one week in advance so other members have time to read and react to every submission (written notes not required; verbal feedback is fine).

CLOSED

Genre(s): Fiction, or creative non-fiction. Short or novel.

Group Size Limit: 10

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Tuesdays, 3.30 - 5.30 pm. Twice monthly.

WHERE: In-person meeting in Mid-Peninsula at a local restaurant.

Restrictions / Limitations: No previously published work, no articles, blogs, or poetry. This is a prose fiction and non-fiction group, short or long/novel form.

Potential Rules: Writers bring 7 pages, double-spaced, to read in group. If want pages marked up, can bring copies for members. Read, oral critique, discussion and questions at end only. Marked up copies returned.

Again, this was the format for the SF Writers Workshop, and it was most helpful while not engendering a lot of "homework" for members!

Approximate Starting Date: 4/10/2023

Genre(s): Science fiction and fantasy.

Group Size Limit: 4-8

CLOSED

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Weekly. Wednesdays @ 6 pm.

We meet for about 3 hours, occasionally a bit longer. Most efforts concentrated in that time. (No need to prepare critique in advance).

WHERE: Virtual, online.

Restrictions / Limitations: Minors should preview the group with a parent/ guardian. Current members are all adults.

Erotica, abuse/violence-celebrating stories, nonfiction are not appropriate subgenres for this group.

Potential Rules: Submissions can be any length. Most members are writing novels. Format: upload standard-formatted excerpt on or before meeting day, read passage aloud while others take notes, about 10-15 mins, then take constructive critique for next 10-15 mins. Do the same for other participants-listen, take notes, share thoughts. Practical, supportive, constructive comments only, include positive feedback as well. No bashing. Provide written feedback by email afterwards, as annotations to provided MS.

Genre(s): Fiction and Memoir

Group Size Limit: 4

Open / Closed / Undecided: Closed

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time, & Duration: Once a month

PLACE: In person

Restrictions / Limitations: None

Potential Rules: Submit material in advance

Approximate Starting Date: November 24, 2024

Group: CLOSED

Genres: Fiction, non-fiction, memoirs.

Size Limit: 7

Where: Virtually on Zoom

Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration:  We meet the second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 7-8:30pm.  Meeting time is spent on commenting on our stories and giving encouragement.

Potential Restrictions / Limitations: Our members are not skilled in evaluating poetry or screenplays.

Potential Rules: We are a group of experienced and award-winning writers who support each other and laugh as frequently as possible. As a writer, you are free to write about anything. No topics are off the table. Although on the other hand, as a human being, you have a right to your own feelings, and are not expected to critique any work that offends you.

Writers submit up to 2500 words of their work for review, one week prior to the meeting. Work is shared on Google Docs, in 12-point font, and double-spaced.  Critiques/comments are due the weekend before the meeting.

We respect each other. Personal attacks are not tolerated and are grounds for expulsion from the group.

Genre(s): All genres.

Group Size Limit: 4

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration: We have met bi-weekly for many years, Thursday mornings 10:00 a.m.

Restrictions / Limitations: None

Potential Rules: No rules

Approximate Starting Date: Closed

Genre(s): Whatever occurs to us, but generally short fiction.

Group Size Limit: 4

CLOSED

Potential Meeting Frequency, Starting Time & Duration: Once a month by mutual arrangement for 1.5-2.0 hours.

Restrictions / Limitations: We have not articulated any.

Potential Rules: Writers submit material to be reviewed one week in advance.