We’re one of Manchester’s longest-running creative writing groups, having met continuously for around 50 years.
We aim to provide a space to bring your writing, share it with fellow writers from a wide variety of backgrounds, and receive constructive feedback to help you develop and improve your work. Our members work in a wide range of styles and genres, including novels, short stories, poetry and drama. We also encompass an equally wide range of experience levels.
We welcome anyone who’s passionate about their writing, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, disability, age, social background or sexual orientation.
Venue
As our name suggests, we meet every Monday evening (except for Bank Holidays) from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at the Briton’s Protection, 50 Great Bridgewater St, Manchester M1 5LE in Manchester city centre.
Attendance at MNG meetings and workshops is FREE, but donations to support our work are welcome!
How the MNG Works
When you come to a MNG meeting, what can you expect? Well, first of all, you’ll meet writers with a wide variety of backgrounds and experience levels. Our members include poets, novelists, short story writers, dramatists and performers.
Some of us are published, others not. What we do have in common is a passion for writing, a desire to develop our work, and a willingness to support others in doing so.
Our general meetings work in a very straightforward way. We start off by finding out who’s brought work to read out, then go around the table with members reading their work and receiving feedback. We normally assume a maximum of ten minutes to read out and another ten for feedback.
There’s no compulsion to read out the first time you attend (or, indeed, on any occasion). If you do bring work along, it’s helpful if you can also bring a few copies so that fellow members can read along.
Whether you’re reading your own work or not, we would encourage you to get involved in providing feedback.
You can find out more by reading our new member’s guide.
Feedback
Getting constructive feedback from other writers is what the group’s all about. It’s the way we learn and develop our skills as writers.
So, if you are reading out, we’d encourage you to be open to the feedback other members give you. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with it all, but it does mean that you should be prepared to listen and consider what people say.
A while ago, we asked our members what words came to mind to describe the sort of feedback they got from the group. Here are some of the words that came up:
- critical feedback
- useful
- honest
- proactive
- balanced
- energetic
- specific.
Click here for our feedback guidelines.
the Monday Night Group 