Coffee and Critique

Bring a story. Bring some coffee. Bring a smile.

Lynsey is hosting this Meetup.

This meeting will take place at the Huntsville Library meeting room A on the ground floor. Eight people max - reserve your spot early! ALL GENRES AND WRITING LEVELS WELCOME!

Please send your piece of up to 5,000 words to lynsey.morandin@gmail.com by Thursday, September 14. If your piece isn't turned in by midnight of the 14th, you will be removed from the meeting to make room for anyone on the waiting list. We often have last minute substitutions, so please submit your work by the 14th even if you are on the waiting list.

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND WORD COUNT ON YOUR DOCUMENT.

If you would like to receive comments via email, include your email and that request as part of your submission document. Please note: we do not send out email critiques until after the meeting. The in-person meeting is the most valuable way of disseminating your notes to each writer, and we ask that you please refrain from emailing your comments to our members until you have had a chance to speak to them in person.

You may submit:

• ONE whole short story up to 5,000 words
• THREE poems
• THREE chapters of a book up to 5,000 words TOTAL**

SUBMISSIONS THAT EXCEED THIS WORD/POEM/CHAPTER COUNT WILL NOT BE INCLUDED so please make sure that you follow the guidelines. We will not cut works to fit within the word count, nor will we give you another opportunity to submit your piece to this meeting if you exceed the word count. **If you are sending in chapters from a book and they do not include the first chapter, please also include a one-paragraph max. summary of what has already happened in your book.

Reminder for anyone new: You are required to read and comment on EVERY piece and attend the critique session. You are also required to comment on a piece even if it is not something you'd normally read or a genre you don't know much about. The point of this is to help everyone improve their work, and comments from readers outside our genres are just as valuable as comments from readers within our genres. Please also note that grammatical and punctuation errors can be noted on each piece, but that is not the purpose of these sessions. We are here to talk about each piece as a whole - what works, what lost you, what could be improved and why. We will not be discussing punctuation and spelling in the group meeting.

If you are left on the waiting list of this session, and you don't get substituted in, you will be the first to join the next critique session. We want everyone to be able to participate, and don't want you to be discouraged if this group is already filled up. If you have a piece ready to be critiqued, JOIN THE WAIT LIST and you will get first priority for the next critique session.

If you were in the previous critique session, you are also encouraged to RSVP, but please be aware that you may be moved to the waiting list to make room for someone who did not participate in the last critique. This only applies to those who participated in the immediately previous critique session.