Some comments may seem out in left field. However, when two or more members make the same comment, that tells me I need to pay attention. Occasionally, another member will reveal an unexpected way that my work may be interpreted, as I learned when I was accused of elf abuse.

Reading work ahead of time and going over the script together at the meeting is the most helpful. Give the copy of the script–with your comments–to the writer, so he/she can refer back to it.

Read produces screenplays and discuss them. Repeat: read screenplays and discuss them.

Only keep members who bring work to the meetings and give feedback. Remove members who don’t consistently come to the meetings.

Celebrate victories, no matter how small. We’ve all placed in screenwriting and pitch contests. One of our members even shot her own short film. Half of us have attended the Screenwriting Expo. A little encouragement produces amazing results. Pay it forward.

Good luck!

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One of the strengths is that we actually work in a wide range of mediums – plays, screenplays, novels, and even a comic book here or there. We’re always on the lookout for info and material that would help one another out, so in addition to becoming better writers, we’ve also learned a tremendous amount about the industry and business side of writing through one another. The biggest upside to the group, though, is that not only do we keep one another writing, but we push each other to produce the best material possible and do not settle for less than what everyone is capable of.

In November I found a writing group of 7 writers with varying skill levels, and it’s worked out really well, because we all have the same goals. We all want to be TV writers specifically, and we’re serious about it (none of us are hobbyists, this is what we want to do for our careers). No one has quit yet, though people will take a break when they need to.

Yeah you’ll get conflicting notes, but you’re generally looking for patterns. If multiple people have a problem with an aspect of your script, then that’s probably something you should look at. Even if their suggestions to fix it are totally stupid, the fact that there is a problem is the most important thing to glean from them. And there is a way people can rip apart your script when sitting together like nothing any one person can do on their own. I’ll be at a loss of what to say about someone’s script and then after listening to other group members critiquing for a minute, I get ideas and jump into the feeding frenzy. And that’s what you want.

Things that help make it work: (1) We have one guy who handles all the logistics — where/when we meet, who’s on deck to present something. (2) We read each other’s work ahead of time (email pdf’s) so as to give well-thought-through comments. (3) We start every session by focusing on what’s good about what we just read. (4) We eat together — provides hang time to make sure our relationship isn’t just about critiquing.

Yes, we’ve had attrition, but we’ve had new people join as well… I can’t imagine writing w/o my writers group at my back…

I’ve lived in LA for a number of years and have a nice informal group of friends who I share material with. Actors, directors, producers and other writers.

Excellent advice. I’ve been a part of school-based writing groups for the past 6 years and the results have varied (as you said, the instance where I was writing a comedy in a room of historical dramas was almost nightmarishly difficult), but it’s been the reading of other people’s work that has benefited me most.

If you have the time (that’s a big caveat), I can not stress enough how much you can learn by giving real effort to critiquing the other scripts. Don’t just ID what you like/dislike, but figure out why and offer constructive criticism to fix it. “Make this funnier” is okay, but “this joke doesn’t work because you bury it, letting the scene go on too long, and you don’t set it up properly in earlier scenes — maybe you should put the monkey’s hat in the the second scene and then bring it back when they’re at the funeral” will help you to better understand how your own writing works.

Also, you will see a lot of mistakes that you’ll vow to never make yourself. It’s a lot easier than actually making those mistakes yourself first, then coming to that realization much later.

Our number one rule is HONEST CRITICISM, so we really do not hold back with each other because everyone wants each other to succeed in writing a great script so nobody takes the notes they get personally.

First meeting we began with everyone pitching up to a few ideas to the entire group. After each person went, we discussed as a group, we asked questions during the pitches to see how well thought out the story was and to see how excited the writer was about their idea. If the person pitched more than one idea, we took an informal vote as to what idea was the best one to focus on and then the writer picked one and committed to that for their project to complete as part of the group.

We have seven writers in the group and it is going strong because everyone made it a priority on their calendar. Everyone is writing a different genre, horror, comedy, suspense/thriller, drama etc. and that seems to really engage everyone.

Occasionally, we will start a meeting with a discussion on specific screenwriting issues, like once we watched three different films for just their first ten or fifteen minutes and talked about the opening ten pages of a script. It was very interesting.

Now, each week, we read out loud the pages of our fellow writers and then give notes on how we think it reads and how the story is playing out.

It seems unanimous amongst our group that the weekly accountability is a huge motivator. Plus, we have a great time every week when we get together.