The Woodlands Writers Guild

“The format is simple: You just bring up to 10 pages double-spaced and read it and then let people tell you what they think,” Umbehr said. “I don’t think we’ve ever turned anyway anything based on genre. You [have] got to be willing to get into everything if you’re going into writing.”

Rusty Rhoad, a member of the guild for eight years and a published author, said fiction writing is the most popular genre with authors in the guild. The group also came together for the first time this year to publish an anthology of short fictional stories, “Tales of the Forest.” The anthology’s Kindle version is already available on Amazon as well as the printed version, which costs between $8 and $10.

Both Umbehr and Rhoad encourage new and young writers to join the guild to not only expand their writing skills but also offer new criticism for existing members.

“Getting a flow of new writers is pretty important because if you get the same group of people critiquing each other, it gets pretty stale,” Rhoad said. “I feel like I’m offering a lot to new writers. When I came to the guild, I had works that were in progress. Then I started reading for them. Going from my skill level then to my skill level now was a really rapid experience.”

Umbehr echoed Rhoad and said the guild offered a learning experience for writing that could not be taught in schools.

“It does take a thick skin [to] do this—you’re giving them your work and asking them to tear it to pieces,” he said. “If you want to be any type of fiction writer, you have to learn there are no rules, only guidelines. But we’re always looking for new faces.”