Become a better writer!

What is the Online Writing Workshop?
It's an online community of writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror--brand-new and published--who help each other improve their work. Whatever your level, the workshop can help you grow as a writer--through the useful critiques you receive and through what you learn by reviewing the work of others. See our member comments for examples.

So if you're an aspiring writer, join us! Post your writing for reviews, critique interesting work by others, read and learn from our monthly Editors' Choices, participate in our discussions, and use our extensive list of resources for writers. You retain all rights to your work and choose your own level of participation. Our costs are as low as we can make them--$49 a year, or 94 cents a week. (How to join or renew)

Congratulations to our members on these recent major sales and awards!
Aliette de Bodard--Servant of the Underworld (Spring 2010) and two sequels to Harpercollins imprint Angry Robot
Aliette de Bodard--finalist for John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, 2009
Resident Editor John Klima--2009 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine for Electric Velocipede
Amanda Downum--trilogy The Drowning City (2009), The Bone Palace (2010), and Kingdoms of Dust (2011) to Orbit Books
Rae Carson--The Princess and the Godstone and two more books to Greenwillow, an imprint of HarperCollins
N.K. Jemisin--The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (February 2010) and two sequels to Orbit Books
Peter Cooper--YA fantasy The Ghost of Ping-Ling to Omnibus Books (2011)
Bradley P. Beaulieu--The Winds of Khalakovo (April 2011) and two sequels to Night Shade Books
Jodi Meadows--Erin Incarnate and two sequels to Katharine Tegen Books/HarperCollins
Leah Bobet--YA fantasy Above (Spring 2012) to Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic

Current Editors' Choices
Our Resident Editors, Jeanne Cavelos, Gary Braunbeck, Karin Lowachee, John Klima, and Karen Meisner, professionals in the speculative-fiction field with much experience and many publications to their names, choose one submission in each of four categories every month and write reviews you can learn from. (Here is a sample review.) The latest Editors' Choices:
Encrypted by Lindsay B. (fantasy chapter)
The Cure for Falling by Giovanni Giusti (science-fiction chapter)
"A Ship of the Line" by Margaret Fisk (SF/F short story)
"Grip" by Pamela Troy and "Intensive Care Unit" by Tim W. Burke (horror short stories)
We've also published a few Editorial Focus articles by our Resident Editors to help our members learn about or improve their skills at some aspect of speculative-fiction writing.

Top Reviewers
Reviews and helpful critiques are what power the workshop. If you've gotten a very helpful review, nominate the reviewer to the monthly Reviewer Honor Roll (which first appears in the newsletter). We thank our current most active reviewers (counting substantial reviews only):
  Ladonna Watkins
L. David Holbrook Jr
April Grey
Georgina Bruce
elizabeth hull

Hall of Fame
Workshop members have sold novels to major SF/F publishers and stories to magazines including Asimov's Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. See full monthly listings in our Hall of Fame. And e-mail us with your publication news!

Member Success Story

The Magic Thief
by Sarah Prineas



HarperCollins, June 2008

Comments from Members

"I think an active membership in OWW is one of the very best investments a genre writer can make in his or her future."
--Colleen Lindsay, literary agent

"The comments and encouragement I received were invaluable in helping me improve my skills. I wouldn't have gone to Clarion if I hadn't first gone through the workshop."
--C.E., New York, NY

"I find this workshop is superior to anything I am doing in my Master's-level creative-writing workshops."
--P. G., Anchorage, AK

"The wealth of material to review, the wealth of reviewers and the helpfulness of support staff all mark the site out as hands above the rest."
--B.O., Huntingdon, England

More comments from our members

Let us know what you think!

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