Growing a Writers’ Group—For Twenty Years!

Twenty years ago, I was happy to host what would become the Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC, at its first meeting at the Barnes & Noble in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As one who had mostly written nonfiction to that point, I knew my fiction chops needed a lot of work. In preparation for our first meeting, I read volumes about story structure, characters, conflict, the hero’s journey, description, point of view, and all the other facets of writing I still needed to fill my own writer’s toolbox. I created handouts and brought pages from a work in progress to share . . . if anyone actually showed up.

When the evening arrived, three people came. But by the end of the summer, word had spread, and we had about two-dozen people attending meetings. Most wrote fiction, but we had writers of nonfiction, poetry, screenplays—and even a game coder. Everyone wanted their chance to speak, but there wasn’t enough time for anyone to say much or get the feedback they needed. We started meeting twice a month, but people became frustrated. It wasn’t working.

Over time, many of our summer attendees stopped coming, and we settled into a group of about ten people—mostly fiction writers. But I knew it could fall apart again if we weren’t careful. So, we learned from our experience.

We evolved, developing patterns that have sustained us for twenty years. While our practices might not work for everyone, these are the basic rules that have worked for us:

1. We are fiction writers. We finally realized that the few poets, essayists, and screenwriters who came to and left our group were telling us something. Our forms are so different from one other, we do better if we focus solely on fiction.
2. We are open to all fiction genres. While different genres have specific expectations, writing any good story uses many of the same tools. By mixing critiques from people who write other genres, we can blast out of the ruts and cliches that sneak into our writing and bring a fresher, less formulaic voice to our work.
3. We do not limit our members to sharing only a page or two at a time. We read one or more full short stories or book chapters at each meeting. Then we offer the writer our overall reactions and specific suggestions for improvement. Allowing an author to read only a page or two per meeting might allow more people to receive feedback, but without a broader look at a work, we can’t react to things such as use of setting, characterization, or story arc.
4. Shared work is read aloud, but an author may not read their own work. This allows members to react to a work without being swayed by the author’s performance of the story. It is helpful for the author, too, as they hear their words and identify the speed bumps in the narrative that they might have skimmed over when looking at the page.
5. We meet regularly, two or three times per month depending on the demand for critique time. If it’s Tuesday, there’s a good chance we’re meeting.
6. We keep the members engaged. We have group projects, including publishing an online literary magazine and running an annual international Short Story Award competition. We have published novelettes with various members writing one chapter, each from a different point of view.
7. Best of all, we have created a series of anthologies on a variety of themes. There’s something for everyone among our titles. (We call them “Sweet, Funny, and Strange^® tales, which pretty much describes our motley crew.) Most of our anthologies have won awards. There’s nothing that encourages a writer quite like seeing their work in print—with a medal on the cover! All of these projects help solidify a group identity and keep us writing.
8. We keep it friendly. We’re not just colleagues, we’re friends. We make group decisions by consensus, not by decree. We don’t run our meetings like a rigid classroom. We take time to socialize a bit and talk about more than our critiques. It’s important, though, for us to remember the reason we’re getting together: to make progress on our writing.

Over twenty years, we’ve gone from a group of unpublished, uncertain writers, to one where each author has many publications and awards to their credit. I guess we found a system that works for us.

Celebrating

20 Years of Sweet, Funny, & Strange Tales

May 2026
978-1-954675-07-0

Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC

To celebrate our evolution over twenty years, we have published a new anthology: Celebrating: 20 Years of Sweet, Funny, and Strange^® Tales. We have taken two stories from each of our “Sweet, Funny, and Strange” anthologies and brought them together in one volume. It’s available for pre-order, in print or e-book, from your favorite bookseller.

This fall, we’re also bringing out a new SF&S anthology—our ninth—comprised of tales of science fiction and fantasy titled: Illusive Worlds. Watch for it in time for holiday gift-giving.

Was being together for twenty years our goal in 2006? It wasn’t even a twinkle in our eye. But looking back at how far we have come, I guess we could say, “It’s a good start.”

~Carol L. Wright