By Charles G. McGraw
With the enormous hubris that only newly minted authors – Mark Garland and Charles McGraw – could have, one day in Sept.1991 Mark suggested that we should lead a Writer’s Group and share our wisdom with those who had yet to break the plane of publishing. My initial reaction was that it was one of his crazier ideas to date. Simply put, no way. Mark however, besides being multi-talented, had a vision and the tenacity of an angry bulldog.
The Fantastic Fiction Forum was started in 1991 to fill what they perceived as a void in the CNY writers scene. None of the writer’s groups in the area – and there were several very good ones – catered to the speculative genres. Aspiring writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror didn’t have a forum to discuss their interests in. So, in the spirit of paying forward, as Robert Heinlein always encouraged, they started a workshop / writer’s group to help others get published and to help themselves be better writers.
We did this in a workshop format that meet roughly every three weeks at a local library. We did this by reading and critiquing each other’s work, sharing market information, networking, having guest visitors from the publishing world, workshop ‘assignments’, videos, mutual support and even a little socializing.
At its peak we had twenty members with a core group of a dozen mostly regular members; including such diverse and overlapping backgrounds as: three published novelists, a doctor, two small-press magazine publisher/editors, a bookstore owner, three full-time college students, and so on. Experience varied just as much from the published novelists, others who have just begun being published in the professional and small-press markets, while still others were just beginning to submit their work – all had something to gain from the group interaction. The only requirement to being a member was the desire to be a better writer.
The workshops lasted for almost a decade until the moderators crashed. Mark had found work as a trade magazine editor, his music career had a resurgence all in addition to his day job. I simply crashed due to having too many irons in the fire. The other published novelist had to take over the family business, so she was in no position to take over. The group died the inevitable heat death of such an organization.
Meetings were held at the Salina Free Library in Mattydale. We got together roughly every three weeks on Friday nights from 7:00 to 10:00 PM or occasionally even later depending on when we had to push people out the front door. The meeting schedule was adjusted depending on holidays, vacations and other strange reasons. There was no fee for workshop membership as the moderators absorbed any costs that occurred.
We had two words of warning to all prospective members: (change in tense)
1 – This is a WRITERS workshop, not a fan club. While favorite authors, books, movies and TV shows certainly show up in the conversation, that is not what we get together for. A member must be prepared to submit work to be critiqued, accept constructive criticism, and read the other member’s works and offer intelligent criticism on them. Remember, the #1 goal is to help writers become published writers.
2 – While our members produce everything from poems to novels, and screen-plays to young adult works, we lean very heavily toward the realms of FANTASTIC FICTION. This means Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. If your interest lies only in mainstream or non-fiction works and you have no interest in any of the speculative genres, then we are probably not the right workshop for you.
The in-person workshop is relegated to the past, but Scott’s web based vision may help beginning (and established) writers in new and exciting ways. The King is dead, Long live the King.