Dedicated to learning better writing through critiquing (established 2005; formerly Vestal Writers founded in 1992)
The group’s focus is genre novels–mystery, suspense, thriller, action-adventure, science fiction, fantasy, horror, historical, romance, etc. Emphasis is on being productive writers–writing, revising, and submitting novels for traditional publication. Sorry, but this group doesn’t critique literary fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, plays, essays, magazine and newspaper articles, etc. This group focuses on traditional publishing rather than self-publishing.
The group exists solely for the purpose of learning publishable writing through critiquing. Members of the group ascribe to the idea that good fiction writing can be learned and through study and practice they will become better writers (also known as a growth mindset ). Critiquing, also known as workshopping, is the basis of the MFA approach .