Back in 2002 a writer’s group was started at Liverpool Library that meets the last Wednesday of every month except November and December, in which case there’s one date set up to cover both months. I was a founding member of that group, and I’d like to briefly talk about it.

There are a few writer’s groups around Syracuse. One will be going away, that being the one that used to be at Border’s at Carousel Mall which is closing. There’s supposedly one on Thursday nights at Barnes & Noble on Erie Blvd, but I’m not sure that one is still there.

The genesis of the group began in June 2002 where there was a presentation at the library by a romance writer whose name I forget. She’d written 5 or 6 books and had 5 of them published. She talked about her process of writing and getting her works published, and it was pretty neat. After her presentation Jill Youngs, one of the ladies that still works at the library, asked the group if they’d be interested in starting up a writer’s group of some sort. And thus, in August 2002, the group was born. We didn’t come up with the name Night Writers until 2006 at some point.

What does a writer’s group do? It critiques whatever someone who’s written something wishes to be critiqued. The core of our group now is about 6 people, but we’ve had as many as 15 show up here and there. We’re a pretty nice group in that we’re not the toughest critiquers in the world. We’re not there to hurt anyone’s feelings, but if someone’s way off base we’ll let them know.

Mainly we critique fiction. For instance, I’ve been working on this detective story for about 6 years now; I’m only 16 chapters in. But I’ve written a number of short stories and I’ll bring one of those in from time to time if I’m not into reading another chapter of my other story. We usually have enough time to get in 3 or 4 readings, and the author has the option of bringing a copy for everyone or reading it themselves, or even asking someone else to read. That’s both funny and interesting because sometimes the reader gets caught off guard with the content of the story, while other times hearing someone else read what you’ve written gives you a different perspective on your composition.

Anyway, we meet from 6PM to 8:30 PM, and our next meeting is obviously tomorrow night, the 26th. We have a Facebook page as well, linked to above. You don’t have to RSVP, but if you wish to you can connect on the Night Writers FB page or, if you have Twitter, write Tim Dodge, as I’ve linked to his Twitter account. Or you can leave a comment here saying you’re coming. Or just drop in; we’re friendly. 😉

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