Fantastic Fiction Forum of Central New York is a writers group focused on helping get it's members published. We were founded in the 1990's by writers of speculative fiction to help aspiring writers get published. Don't get us wrong - there's nothing wrong with writing literature, or memoirs, or romance. It's just that we're more familiar with genres like science fiction, fantasy, horror, and so on. We feel we're best able to help others who write similar narratives, either short or long form.
Membership is by application. You supply a short piece (at least 500 words) for review, and we review it. If you're accepted, you get a link to our discussion boards. All membership is provisional - during your first 12 months, you must verifiably submit work for publication somewhere. After that, we expect you to submit for publication at least every six months. If you don't submit your work somewhere, the directors can revoke your membership.
In the members' area, there's a discussion board. One of the areas is for the upload of work to be critiqued. You make a post and attach your work as a PDF. Members should download all submitted work and read it, making any notes they may have. Then, every month, the members meet via Zoom, where we go "around the table" and workshop each piece submitted for review that month.
The short answer: No.
Our directors and members help aspiring writers with technical issues like spelling, grammar, vocabulary, pacing, dialogue, story structure, and so on. We also look for markets, and pass along sage advice. Other members cannot do the work for you, nor can we submit your work for you. If you DO write and submit your work to a market, we can't make a publisher take your work. However - if you hone your craft, pay attention to markets and their requirements, and submit quality work, you are much more likely to be published than if you did NOT do these things. All members are here to help one another do all of those things.
1) Your comments should critique the work, not criticize the work, or the author.
1A) This ain't baseball. You get one warning. If you break Rule #1 a second time, you're banned with no refund.
2) Tell us why. When your comment is a judgement - "I like. . .", "It's good. . .", "This is bad. . ." - you must include your reasons. A judgement without a reason is not helpful, and the whole reason F3CNY exists is to help the members get published.
3) There's always something positive to say about a work. You can abstain from commenting, but if you're going to comment, point out at least one positive thing about the work.
"This is the worst story ever written because A, B and C" is harsh, but acceptable. "This is good" sounds nice, but doesn't help at all. "The author dresses well" is a positive criticism of the author, but unacceptable because it doesn't address the work. (Although positive, it's also that person's one and only strike against Rule #1.) See the difference?
To criticize something is to simply point out all the faults, or negative aspects. To critique something is to evaluate a work and acknowledge both the negative and the positive aspects. At F3CNY, you should always attempt to help an author polish their work, and make it publishable, by critiquing it.
You do not have to like a particular work to critique it. You can dislike the characters, or the setting, or the theme. That's fine. You can still objectively help the author hone their work if you concentrate on the basics of crafting written work.