Coming Soon: The Greek Programs
Hello Fam!
Following on the heels of this year’s WWE (Wordfam Writing Extravaganza) we will be opening some new Feedback Groups.
Some of you will have heard talk of our Buddy Group which has been running for the last 8 months, and as the current group comes to a close the WordFam leaders have been hard at work making plans for a few new feedback groups: The Greeks.
Why the Greeks? I’m glad you asked!
To start with, we are creating a new Alpha Feedback Group and a Beta Feedback Group, along with the informal and more sporadic Delta Challenges.
How does it work?
We will be starting with the Alpha Group. This will be a small group of no more than four writers, who will participate in a preliminary feedback and cheerleading program designed to help you finish the first draft of a novel-length project.
The Alpha program will run on a fortnightly basis: one week of writing, then one week of feedback. The focus will be on encouragement, cheerleading, and feedback on pacing, cohesion, and overall enjoyment; as well as discussing potential blocks, plot decisions, or problems the author is having.
Our Beta Group will consist of four writers with finished drafts. This is a second or later draft. Feedback will focus on the big story picture: pacing, plot holes, characterisation, setting/worldbuilding, foreshadowing of plot, and other key story elements. This is not an editing program. Whilst readers may point out any spelling or grammar mistakes it is not part of the expected feedback.
The Beta program will run on a monthly basis, with a check-in to exchange thoughts, reactions, and feedback on the portions of each story read so far.
Finally our Delta Challenges will be a more informal, less intensive exchange. Less of a program, and more of a one off “challenge” that we are hoping to run a few times a year. These will be better suited to shorter fiction, and will have word limits in place. When the Delta Challenge is open, we will post a prompt with some additional challenges and you can submit these into a thread dedicated to that challenge in #Share-your-writing. To participate, you only have to commit to providing feedback on at least three other entries.
If you’re interested
We will be opening expressions of interest for the Alpha and Beta groups at the closing of WWE. This is to provide an opportunity to use our WWE event to create a buffer of your draft for the Alpha program, or finish your draft for the Beta Program. Once WWE wraps up, keep an eye on this space for the Expression of Interest form.
Things to Note
- The programs will run on the Discord Server.
- Each program requires commitment. Of course there will be times where life gets in the way and you will not be able to keep to the schedule; but it is expected that you will participate in both the submission and feedback parts of the group. Therefore, if you cannot commit to a long-term program, please do not submit a request to join.
- Each program requires submissions of chapters, and submissions of feedback on 2-3 projects within the required timeframes of the group.
- The Alpha and Beta programs will run for roughly 6-8 months each. Writers can participate in only one at a time.
- While Alpha reading and Beta reading are both different types of feedback, they are both still preliminary types of feedback. Neither of these programs are designed to be used as a form of editing. If you believe your story is at the editing stage (the last stage before your story is at a publishable standard), then you’d be better off researching editors than submitting to either our Alpha or Beta groups.
- Prior to beginning each of the programs, we will be running a feedback workshop. Attendees will be required to participate in this before commencing with the group.
- While we don’t expect any of the projects submitted to these programs to be highly polished, we require suitable formatting to make it as easy as possible for the readers providing feedback on your projects. These will be explained once the programs begin.
Final word
We’re really excited to offer these opportunities to our wonderful WordFam and hope that those interested are able to use our WWE event to build a nice big buffer or finish off a project.
Happy Writing, Fam.