About Us
We are a family of human beings with a smorgasbord of experience and careers. We write, we chat, we read, we celebrate each others’ accomplishments and sometimes we party for the hell of it.
What are you getting yourself into? We offer an intellectual yet convivial community of encouragement, feedback, advice, and inspiration for writers of all skill levels and genres. We host a variety of events in the Greater Fort Wayne area. Although most of our Member Writers are local, people have dropped in from all over.
Our Mission
The Fort Wayne Writers Guild is devoted to celebrating the written word as an art form through the education, support, and promotion of writers connected to our region and by engaging with our communities through activities that spark interest in this compelling medium of self-discovery and expression.
Our Meetings
Writers Round Robin
Sharpen your writing skills while connecting with other scribes at FWWG’s Online Writers Round Robin. At this event participants take turns sharing a 500 – 700 word story they’ve created based on the same writing prompt. After each reading, the group offers feedback with an eye towards comments that are honest, frank, specific, but overall, supportive and heartening of each writer’s efforts.
Prompts for Writers Round Robin are posted on the Announcements page. To get regular updates for prompts and other Guild Events, subscribe on the announcements page!
Workday Wordsmiths:
Workday Wordsmiths offers several of the Guild’s more popular activities (Feedback, Brainstorming & Learning) in a relaxed, daytime setting. During these sessions writers will have the option of sharing a fifteen to twenty minute reading with the group for constructive feedback, such as a short story, chapter from a manuscript, or an essay. In lieu of a reading, writers will also have the option of sharing story ideas for a brainstorming session with the group. One third of the meeting will also be devoted to discussion about a specific book on the art of writing. Members will take turns leading these discussions, depending upon whatever writing guide, manual, or workbook they are interested in at the time.
Weekend Writers:
We will meet virtually every Saturday morning to write together and get ideas from each other if needed. This event includes writing bursts of about 30 minutes with ten minute breaks built in for anyone who wants to seek advice or just let their brain recharge. The best part is, you don’t have to take the break if you don’t want! Just mute your computer and write on through.
The “schedule” for Weekend Writers is as follows:
9:00 a.m. – 9:10 a.m. Talk/prep
9:10 a.m. – 9:40 a.m. Writing session 1
9:40 a.m. – 9:50 a.m. Talk break, Q&A, advice, etc.
9:50 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. Writing session 2
10:20 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Talk, Q&A, etc.
10:30 a.m. – More writing if desired
Even though the schedule lasts an hour and a half, we may continue on for longer if desired. We look forward to seeing you all there. Happy writing!
Pubs & Prose:
Have you ever dared to imagine how magnificent it would be to converse, rap, discourse with your fellow scribes and authors (both published and aspiring) within the convivial surroundings of a local pub? One with a mind-blowing selection of craft brews to spark the imagination and satisfy the artistic palate?
Monday nights at JK O’Donnell’s (121 W Wayne St.) affords the perfect environment for the Fort Wayne Writers Guild to continue our noble discourse on the fine art of writing in a setting as gregarious as the fellowship our Guild has engendered. The second Monday of the month is also the ONLY night when JK’s offers Live Traditional Irish Music. Enough blarney and brogue to break even the worst writers block. We promise.
No readings, just a group of fascinating local writers talking shop, talking smack, and sometimes expounding on life’s great pageantry over a few excellent brews. Or not. It’s a bar, so everything’s naturally going to be less structured. That’s the idea.
If you’re not a drinker, don’t worry. Plenty of our members have an amazing time filled with laughter and animated discussion while sipping on nothing but root beer and ice water. Camaraderie is the point of the gathering. Beer is just a tasty but, ultimately, unnecessary facilitator of that goal.
COP a Story*:
Stories continue in 2021. This month’s rendition of COP happens on Saturday, January 30, with texts appearing beginning at 4:00 pm.
A note about the intention(s) surrounding COP a Story: when we met pre-pandemic, stories were read and then followed by discussion (and at times mild critique). Conversation became a part of the story, in those cases; stories are meant to elicit consideration of the world, and individuals can have different interpretations of their world.
COP no longer meets face-to-face, but readers continue to be invited to Comment on the story posts. If commenting isn’t your thing, you’re encouraged to think about the world offered in the story. “Story” is capable of opening minds to alternate ideas; it reminds us of what we share and our potential.
*COP a Story is not an official Fort Wayne Writers Guild event; however, a number of Guild members do participate.
Shut Up & Write
Talk is cheap (but necessary at times). So put pen and paper where your mouth is and join in a writing session. Sure, bounce ideas around or ask about a questionable phrase or even plot point, but come with the intention of walking out with a page or two in your hand.
Meet us at the Friendly Fox every third Thursday of the month.
- Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
- fortwaynewritersguildorg@gmail.com