Schedule and getting started

Okay mateys, let's get started! Here is the schedule:

Jan. 31 Dave Revere
Feb. 14 Jason Kurtz
Feb. 28 Andrew Cochran
March 14 Bill Kennedy
March 28 Riley Conway
April 4 Daniel Campbell
April 18 Christopher Campbell
May 2 Alan Markham

Let me know if this needs to be changed around. In mid May, let's have a discussion evaluating how this is working and if everyone is getting something out of it. Do we want to move to every week so that we get more input on our work? Are the comment-based discussions working?

From now until Sunday when I first post my work, let's do some introductions since I know some of us know each other less than others. Please post a comment to this post. We should write a paragraph or so introducing ourselves to everyone else. I'll start. Here we go!

Rules for posting to write fu

I pretty much pulled these rules out of my butt, so please lets discuss. Do these rules seem okay? Do they need to be changed? Are there other considerations to make? Does every other week seem too often or not often enough for a new manuscript? Post comments and let me know.

1 - New manuscript posted every other week
2 - no more than 20 pages at a time
3 - post at the beginning of the week - Sunday if possible. Monday if necessary.
4 - Comments from everyone within a week so that further, more in depth discussion has an opportunity to occur if it is needed before the next manuscript
5 - You can resubmit the same work you submitted last time around if you want us to take a look at your revision. Or the next 20 pages. Or another piece. Whatever you want. Try to get out of this group the input that would be the most useful for you.
6 - Privacy kind of goes without saying. Don't show anyone each others work unless you get permission from that person.
7 - Have fun with this. Let's appreciate the understanding we all have that we are apart of this not just for ourselves, but to support and lift each other up (ass-kicking jokes aside). Community is why we're doing this to begin with!

The name of whoever's work is up for comment goes here

This is where the text of the writing sample can go. Any guiding questions that the person wants should preface the sample. If the person prefers to email the writing sample separately to the group, then they can just put the guiding questions here.

An example of the guiding preface could be:

"This is a rough draft of the first 20 pages of my ya novel. I'd just like a basic, workshop style read of this. What is working and what isn't? What is pulling you out of the story? What is making you keep reading? I feel particularly stuck with my characterization. Any thoughts on making my character less flat would be helpful. I'm not really sure what he wants."