Crossroads Writers is the recently adopted name of a previously nameless critique group in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We meet weekly, Monday nights from six to nine, to listen to fiction works in progress and critique them. In the Member Pages section you will find short stories and chapters from larger works. Please read them and give us your input.

How We Operate: Many of us have been together for over ten years. Other members have been around less than a year. Anywhere from five to a dozen people attend on a given night. There is always room for another writer around the table. There is no monetary cost to join our group. However, in a very real sense, there are "costs" to joining an effective critique group:

• You must give honest, constructive input on other people's works. That does not mean telling them how you would write their story. It means trying to understand their writing goals and giving input to help them toward those goals.
• When you receive critique from others, you must listen. It is very difficult to "defend" your manuscript and at the same time pay attention the critique comments of others. Simply put, not all readers will understand what you intended in your manuscript. If you don't wish to hear what others think of your story, you should not ask for it to be critiqued.
• As much as possible, egos must be left outside the group. This, of course, is impossible. We have a moderator to keep us on a constructive critique path, but that is only possible through the joint efforts of all members. Some members tend to address writing technique and grammar issues, while others focus more on story and characterization development. Sometimes these different areas of focus conflict, and that is as it should be. (Also, that is pretty much when the fun starts.)
• Stories critiqued come from a cross section of humanity, and the language and events in those manuscripts reflect those various backgrounds. Although we meet in a church, some of the story situations describe very harsh life events and language.

If you would like to visit us, either with a manuscript to be critiqued or just to hang out, you are invited. We meet at New Haven United Methodist Church at 56th and New Haven. Use the South entrance and follow the signs. The "rules" to our group are the above-mentioned four points. Everything else, we'll work out together.

Background Information (or answers to questions folks usually ask)
Members of the Tulsa Nightwriters long ago formed a fiction critique group that eventually evolved into the Crossroads Writers. At different times, we have met in individual homes, a used car lot, and a community center before landing at the present location.

The name Crossroads Writers was selected to recognize that writers continually find themselves struggling through decision points in their lives and in their work. Although we understand that writing, in the end, must be an individual struggle, this group is an attempt to support our writers in that process.

Some of our writers have day jobs in writing professions, although none as full time fiction writers. Several have had short stories or articles published, or have won writing contests. A few have even had books published, or have agents attempting to sell their books. In our critique sessions, however, the background of a person doesn't matter as much as whether his or her input makes sense.