Critique Circle

Need Another Pair of Eyes?

Flagstaff Writers Connection hosts an open 

Critique Circle for ALL GENRES. 

The circle meets every First and Third Saturday Online.

Meeting times are posted in our Calendars.

How it works:

• Join the email group. If you have trouble with this link, let me know at Cherrie@flagwriter.com.

• Up to a week prior to a scheduled meeting, writers submit up to 4000 words of a first or second-draft story in a Word Document to the Group's email Crit@flagwriter.com. This will email all the members of the group. In the Subject Line of your email write "Submission for" and then the date of the meeting you plan to attend. If you submit to this group, it is assumed you want to be a member of the critique group. Your email will be added to the group, and you will get the other participants' submissions in your email as well. You can leave the group at any time.

• Submissions are taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. One submission per author per meeting. Late arrivals to the meeting will lose their place in line and be put at the end of the meeting ... if there is time.

• All participants in the meeting are responsible for reading the submissions for that meeting and commenting on them prior to the scheduled meeting. If you are at a loss for what to say in a review, take a look at Cherrie's Worksheet. Or look at Jami Gold's Worksheet. Remember to give actionable, constructive criticism. Also, consider the Oreo Method: Tell the author what you liked about their work, then tell them something that could be better or that confused you, and finish with something else you liked in the story.

• At the meeting, the first 30 min will be a social hour. During the last 90 min, six submissions will be reviewed. Each reviewer will highlight what they noticed about the submission for 10 min while the author listens to the reviewer's comments in silence. Then the author will have 2-3 min to ask questions. (I discourage you from defending your work during this valuable time.)

• No hard copy of submissions or reviews is required. Submissions and reviews are emailed to the group. If your comments about a submission are particularly personal, you may email your review directly to the author in question.

• Priority is given to writers who did not submit for the last meeting.

• Occasionally there will be an organizational meeting after all the readings are done for democratic decision-making. These will be kept brief.

Submission Requirements:

• Email the group with a Word Document of up to 4000 words.
• Submissions should be 12-point, single or double-spaced in a simple font with 1-inch margins.
• Give a couple of sentences of introduction: Is this an early draft or a refined draft? How far into the novel is this portion of the story. Give a quick setup, what came before the submitted portion of your novel?