Marlborough Writers

If you are new to this site/the group, please do begin on the WELCOME page.

We use Basecamp to communicate with each other. Once someone has attended a meeting, they will be invited to join Basecamp.

Deadlines for work

These are flexible but we’d like to get away from last minute entries and allow members to have the right amount of time to consider each submission.

• 24th of month (or one week in advance of meeting) for 4,000 words, up to two poems, one sketch, play act, etc – one per writer; up to three pieces per month.
• 10th of month (or three weeks before meeting) for up to 12,000 words or a collection of up to five poems, etc. Please mention the word count/poem number in the email so members allow enough time to read it. We can take one 12,000 word piece and two shorter pieces in one month (one piece per writer). For writers who’ve been group members for at least six months.
• Two months in advance for a full length book/novel/play/collection – please seek the agreement of the group before sharing so we can plan ahead as there will no other work will be critiqued that month. For writers who’ve been group members for at least six months.

Members can expect to submit a piece approximately once a quarter, but this could be more or less frequent depending on the work available. People who haven’t submitted in a few months/new members have priority, to keep submissions fresh and encourage the procrastinating/shy writers!

Submitting your work

• New work is uploaded to the latest month folder in Files and Docs in Basecamp.
• Please submit in a Word doc format. This gives other writers a chance, if they wish, to make comments in the document and reshare it with you.
• Please do give the group some indication of the feedback you’d like (eg plot, character, writing style, scene setting), what you intend to do with it, the stage it is at as this helps people tailor their critique, eg if it’s a first draft we might concentrate on ideas and characterisation whereas a final draft might appreciate sentence structure, grammar, etc. Or you can say ‘anything’! 🙂
• Please do send any stage of writing although, if it’s a very rough first draft, read it through a few more times so you can amend the obvious things.
• If you are writing a novel, if possible, start by submitting the first chapter.
• If you are not submitting a first chapter, please include a few explanatory lines of main plot and characters, etc of previous chapters and, if possible, attach the whole work in progress.