About Wirral Writers

The Wirral Writers Group was established in 1975 by Maynah Lewis with the goal of creating a supportive community where aspiring and established writers could share their work.

Today, we maintain that tradition by meeting twice a month to exchange writing news, share our work, and receive feedback.

During our meetings, members take turns reading their work aloud, and other members provide constructive feedback. To ensure that everyone has an opportunity to read, we encourage authors to keep their pieces under 1200 words or include a natural break point.

We are a friendly group committed to providing a supportive and welcoming environment.

Writing competitions

Wirral Writers holds an annual short story competition called Maynah Lewis, named after the founder. Members can submit stories up to 2000 words on a given theme. Judging is done externally, and past winners are listed on the blog.

House Rules and Code of Conduct

What is a writing group for?

A writing circle is a group of like-minded writers needing support for their work through peer critiques, workshops or classes, or just encouragement.

At Wirral Writers, we aim to provide mutual support to increase the quality and quantity of its members’ writing and make the writing process more enjoyable. Everyone brings along an original piece of work to read, and we listen and then give feedback and discuss each one in turn. Sometimes, we may set writing challenges or discuss writing-related topics. We have a couple of in-house competitions, which we would encourage everyone to participate in.

What writing can I bring?

We don’t focus on specific genres and welcome all kinds of creative fiction. However, while there are no rules regarding the type, style or content of reading samples, the range of skills and experience of group members means we can’t always offer appropriate critique on writing such as life writing, travel, poetry, erotica, blogs and so on.

Reading samples tend to be around 1,000 words in length, to allow time for each group member to read out their piece and receive feedback during the meeting. As the group size increases or decreases, this word count will alter – please be aware that there may be occasions when you don’t get to read out your piece due to discussion being organic.

What is expected?

Participants are expected to actively contribute to this environment in the following ways:

• Bring a writing sample to every session, if possible. The reason to join a writing group is to give and receive feedback.
• Engage – Please offer your own critiques on other’s work during the meetings. This not only helps the writer, but yourself. Getting peer feedback allows you to see how your readers interpret your writing.
• Listen – Please do actively listen whilst other members are reading their piece. If you need to, jot down some notes.            

Fees

The group has to pay for use of the room. We do not charge a joining fee or membership fee, this is purely to cover room costs. As of September 2023, this is £3 per session.

Providing Constructive Criticism:

Begin and end with a positive: Always start on a positive and then address weaknesses and issues, before highlighting something you liked to wrap up.

• Don’t attack the writer:

Direct comments at the work, not the author e.g. the opening drew me in, but breaking up the action with some dialogue would make it even stronger. Not – you need more dialogue.

• Don’t leave them hanging:

Don’t make criticisms without offering suggestions for improvement. Make notes and give examples of areas that need work and techniques that may help.

• Respect your fellow writer:

A writing group is not the place for petty, revenge critiquing. It’s unprofessional and unproductive. But it is the place for thoughtful, honest feedback – don’t hold back for the sake of being nice. Loving everything is useless, so listen carefully and think about what you like or don’t like and why.

• Leave genre bias at the door:

Don’t roll your eyes every time the romantic or fantasy writer reads and then belittle the tropes of their genre. Is it good writing or is it over-descriptive with clunky dialogue? Remember, fantasy or sci-fi may have more description than you prefer, so take that into account in your critique. Likewise, literary fiction may not focus on plot and pace, so just focus on the writing, and perhaps start your feedback with “this isn’t the sort of thing I read, so I may be off the mark, but…”. It’s not about what you like; it’s about whether the author is achieving what they set out to do.

• Practice makes you better:

Offering constructive criticism is something you’ll get better at over time. Learn to listen and think about what works and what doesn’t and why.

Receiving Constructive Criticism:

• Don’t argue with someone’s critique:

Feedback is just opinion, so you’re entitled to disagree with suggested changes, but do it internally, not in the group. Make a note of the suggestion, say “Thank you” and move on. Arguing with every point and being defensive just makes people wonder why you joined the group and wastes time.

• Feel free to ask questions:

If you need clarification on a point, just ask to understand why a suggestion was made.

• Not all feedback is good feedback:

Remember you’re the author, so don’t make changes just because someone in the group didn’t like something. Take time to consider the point and then you make the final decision.

• Sometimes the writing group is right:

If most of the group has the same comment, it’s likely that they’re right. You can ignore them if you wish, but it’s likely that an agent, publisher, or reader will have the same reaction. Consider changing it, even if you don’t agree.

• Sometimes the writing group is wrong:

If the group is telling you there’s a problem with the opening of chapter 10, then listen up, but if they tell you Chapter 10 would be better if it had a car chase or perhaps an alien invasion, then ignore. Uninvited suggestions on how to write your story are usually a sign of genre bias. Look for the cause of the comment, but don’t always act on the advice. Just smile and nod.

A useful tip is to focus your feedback on the seven key elements of fiction:

• Character – Are the characters believable?
• Theme – Is the theme clear, which means is the writer clear on what they are trying to say?
• Plot – Is there one and does it have a good flow?
• Point of view – Is this consistent (or purposely and effectively inconsistent)?   Setting – Does the writer create a strong sense of place and atmosphere?
• Tone – Is the tone even and consistent or does the writing jar?

Taking criticism is a difficult, but necessary part of writing. Writing is a personal thing, so it’s hard to hear that you’re not as brilliant as you first thought. The reason you join a group is to get honest feedback and find out whether you’re any good – it’s valuable and will make you a better writer.

What People Say

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