The Write Well Write Now Online Writers Group will, as the name suggests, be small to medium sized writing groups that takes place in an online setting. The group will be a twelve or twenty-four week course where, hopefully, the writing group members will come away with a good piece of prose writing of no more than 5, 000 words that has been workshopped, edited and polished.

Correspondence between those participants involved will be through an online forum where the group leader, Alyssa, will post tutorial blogs on various aspects of writing practice that also include writing tips and a short writing exercise each week. The writing group members will post both their own writing work and their appraisal of their peers’ work.

To begin with, Alyssa will post an introductory that outlines how to approach offering constructive criticism to a fellow writer. This will be a guideline on how to approach offering constructive feedback to other group members and will also establish some guidelines to effective writing.

Throughout the duration of the course Alyssa will post short to medium length pieces giving advice, tips and recommended reading, covering topics in writing practice such as writing successful dialogue, characterisation, writing setting and place, researching writing, metaphor, narrative structure, and more. These blogs will be posted on a weekly basis and will include writing exercises that aim to develop the writing group members’ writing skills in preparation for their major work. Group members are invited to post their writing exercises online for their peers’ feedback, and are encouraged to share at least two of these exercises.

At the end of Week Seven (or Week Fourteen, if subscribed to the Write Well, Write Now! Writing Groups for twenty-four weeks) the group members should be on their way to creating a first draft of their major work in order to workshop. Workshopping will take place over the course of Week Eight and Week Nine so that a final piece is submitted in Week Eleven and feedback on both the group members’ experience of writing the final piece and their peers’ appraisals of the final work can be shared. This final piece should be either a short story of no more than 5, 000 words, or an excerpt of a novel. It should be a contained, resolved piece in itself, even if it does fit within a larger piece. It should also demonstrate the skills learnt throughout the weeks.

TIMEFRAME

• Pre – commencement Early bird offer. One on one email correspondence appraisal of initial ideas.
• Week 1 Introduction post outlining how to assess a piece of writing, clarity of expression etc.

  Introductions from participants: their interests in terms of genre, style, what they would like to achieve and sharing some early ideas of what they may write for their major work.

• Week 2 Narrative structure and point of view
• Week 3 Genre
• Week 4 Character, voice and tone
• Week 5 Writing setting and place
• Week 6 Researching writing
• Week 7 Dialogue
• Week 8 Workshopping/ Naming
• Week 9 Workshopping/ symbolism and metaphor
• Week 10 Writing endings
• Week 11 Submission of major work/ tutorial posting on editing your own work
• Week 12 Feedback and writing about writing. The participants will write a short appraisal on their peers’ final work, as well as a short journal entry on their experience of writing their piece.

For a twenty- four week subscription, workshopping does not commence until Week Fourteen. The twenty- four week subscription also includes additional tutorials that further explore structure, style and writing practice.

To join our Writers Groups, visit www.aampersanda.com/forums, create a forum login for yourself, and then visit http://www.aampersanda.com/forums/payments.php to choose a Writers Group subscription option that suits you.

For more information, email Alyssa on editing@aampersanda.com or joy@writewellwritenow.com.