1. Help
  2. Create a Group

Create a new group

  1. Go to Groups on the navigation bar and select Create New Group.
  2. Fill out the information and Save changes. Tip: If you are creating a group without particular members in mind and you want to discuss the parameters, you can put in some ideas and then include a sentence like “Let’s discuss this as a group”.
  3. Once saved, the group will appear on your dashboard. Navigate to your group from the Dashboard or via Groups on the navigation bar.

Group owners may edit a group at any time.

Privacy

You may choose the level of privacy for your group.

  1. Share with Inked Voices site visitors, including non-members. Check the box “Share with Inked Voices site visitors” to share a public view of your group with non-members. This view does not include member information or submission schedules (as submission schedules often list member names). If you check this box, your group will display here:
    https://www.inkedvoices.com/group/writing_groups/
  2. Share with Inked Voices members looking for a group. Check the box “Are you recruiting new group members”. When you do this, your group will display in our search results for members:
    https://www.inkedvoices.com/group/results/
  3. Keep your group private within the site. Leave the sharing boxes mentioned above unchecked and your group will not be visible. This option is recommended for groups that are full and don’t want to keep a waiting list.

Group leaders / group owners

When you create a new group, you are, by default, its owner. You may also add other owners to the group during setup or after the group has started. These group owners will also be able to invite or remove members and manage submissions at the admin level.

Add an additional group owner by adding the person’s name to the Group Owners field.

Choose a group size

The right group size depends on the amount of time you have to write and participate, and on the amount of involvement you want to have with your group. Some may want a smaller, more intense group. Some may want a larger, looser group. Consider:

  • How long are the manuscript submissions to the group? For example, picture books are short, novel chapter(s) are long.
  • How much time do you have available to give critique?
  • How much material can you realistically and consistently produce for submission?
  • Do the group members want to critique all submissions or a portion?
  • How many critiques do you hope to receive on your submissions?

If you are unsure where to start, try an initial setting of 4-7 members. Once the group feels things out it can always add more members. You do want to have a core of folks to actually get the group off the ground. However, groups as small as pairs can work as long as there is a high level of commitment.

Advanced Settings

The group has default settings for credits, critique time window and review window. You may edit these at group set up, or as needed down the road. For example, if the group gets larger, you may want to up the credits. If the group becomes quiet, you may want to lower them.

  • Critique ratio: Every critique given earns 1 credit. The critique ratio is the number of credits needed to submit. If the group is in perfect balance, then the critique ratio should also be the average number of critiques each group submission receives. Thus, you can use the critique ratio in a prescriptive way to encourage a minimum number of critiques per submission. When a person joins your group, he will receive the number of credits in this field -- enough to make an initial submission.
  • Critique window: Each submission is assigned a deadline based on this setting. Tip: if someone asks for an extension, you can temporarily increase the critique window.
  • Review window: This sets the number of days a document is available to the group in its Review period -- the time for Q&A and additional commenting. Some groups use a long Review window so that previously workshopped chapters of a whole novel are available for reference.
  • Critique Manager: This is to manage the critiques lifecycle. As the group owner, you can decide whether reviews are approved automatically or manually.