Looking to Form Writing group - Fantasy as main genre - 3-4 people

[Hannah Smith]

Hello everyone!

My name is Hannah. I'm back again, as I found some awesome critique partners through this matchup, but now I really want to form a writing group for something a little more consistent. 

I was thinking of making a discord where we could upload chapters or short stories on a weekly basis and give feedback. (In order for this to work I think I'd like to keep the group to around 4-5 people including myself so it's manageable). Ideally we would even set a time once or twice every month to all hop on and discuss the feedback or problem solve any roadblocks we've run into (I'm on East Coast Time if that's helpful). My main genre is fantasy, so I think that would be the focus of the discord, but that doesn't mean other genres wouldn't be welcome. Also, I'd like the focus to be on adult and young adult stories.

I have no idea what kind of response this will get, so I don't have a set plan for how exchanging chapters among everyone will work, but I will definitely let you know once I get an idea of how many people are interested. 

Anyway, feel free to reach out if this sounds like something up your alley! It would be helpful if you included your main genre, current WIP, preferred feedback software (google docs, word, etc.), and only if you're comfortable with it, your time zone.

My current WIP is my debut novel, Merrow. It's a new adult fantasy sitting at 110k words. I'm in the beta reading stages, with the hope of querying it sometime late July/early August. Here's the blurb:

Nerissa has lived her life waiting for death so she can be reunited with her deceased fiancé. The only issue is she isn’t aging. Living decades past when she was supposed to as a Merrow, she struggles to come to terms with how long her life stretches out in front of her. Then, nearly a century after her fiancé's death, Nerissa receives an invitation to a party. Its host is none other than Blanche Child, the Witch her fiancé had been working for when he died. All the extra years start to make a little more sense. She had always been suspicious of the circumstances surrounding his death, and this party may be the perfect place to put proof to those suspicions. Getting the information she needs isn't nearly as easy as she had hoped, nobody seems to be able to share the information she needs. Her only hope is Blanche's son, who is willing to give her the information that she wants, for a price.

(I'm also in the planning stages for another adult fantasy and adult gas lamp fantasy).

[Marilyn Cox]

Hi! I’m a beta reader and editor, and I help authors strengthen their stories before they reach readers. I look at things like pacing, character development, plot flow, dialogue, clarity, and overall reader experience. If you’re looking for honest, constructive feedback on your work, I’d be happy to connect and tell you more about how I can help.

[Malte Fiebig]

Hello Hannah,

My writing background is in Chinese to German translation and I've been working on two English fantasy short stories for quite some time now. I'm still in the process of figuring things out and making large changes, so the proposed weekly chapter sharing and long-term writing partnership is a lot more interesting to me than the obligatory full manuscript share. I'm a very detail-oriented reader and put a lot of focus on he paragraph level, both in my own writing and in reading the work of others. 

My current WIP is a novelette which I'd describe as a "Lovecraftian love story" set in Taisho-era Japan. 

If you're interested in setting up a discord, my handle is malte8047. 

[Zoe Egan]

Hi Hannah, 

I'm interested in potentially joining your writing. I've been working on a sci-fi/dystopian fiction manuscript about a year now. I'm very amateur,  and frankly I'm little embarrassed to show it to anyone, but I think I'm getting to point where I needs some outside feed back on it. I finished the first two drafts and just started working on the third. It about 60k word at the moment in Word.

Please let me know if you are still looking for group members and if it sounds like I might be a good fit. 

Thank you, 

Zoe