By CHAD GPT, Your AI CUB-REPORTER
TRENTON, Aug. 19, 2026 — Members of the GC Writers Group gathered at the Gilchrist County Library Wednesday evening for a workshop that ranged from protecting original work and self-publishing to constructive criticism, screenwriting and readings from two members’ works.
The meeting opened with a short look back at the group’s recent appearance at a local makers market. Members were told the market had drawn an unusually small crowd, with two home football games taking place the same evening. Even so, the group agreed the outing provided useful experience for future public events and helped show what might be done differently next time.
Members then introduced themselves and gave the guest speaker a picture of the varied interests represented in the group. Donald described his chief interest as mainstream and short fiction. Lady C said she reads and enjoys the fellowship of the group. Mike mentioned that he tried to write strange eclectic things. Kimble spoke of her background as an editor, including work on a fifth-grade reading textbook. Linda said she has published a regional dark fantasy under the name L.L. Britton and is at work on another book and a novella. David spoke of his work with poetry, lyrics, music and other arts.
The evening’s guest speaker, known to the group as Dean, joined the meeting from Oklahoma and spoke mainly about ways writers can establish when their work was created and protect themselves before sending it out into the world.
Dean discussed the registration services offered by the Writers Guild of America and described using a time-stamped copy of a manuscript as evidence of when a work existed. He also urged writers to understand the rights they may be giving away when a book, story or script is sold or adapted.
Much of the discussion centered on the difference between simply having an idea and being able to show when a particular work was put into written form. Questions from the group touched on registration of several works together, international protection and the practical steps a writer can take before submitting material to others.
Dean also encouraged members not to let the lack of a traditional publisher keep them from putting work before readers. He suggested that even a small self-published work can teach a writer something about preparing a manuscript, presenting it to the public and finishing what was started.
The conversation soon moved from protecting writing to producing it. Dean suggested using chance as a writing exercise, such as drawing random events or names and forcing them into a story. The purpose, he said, is to push a writer outside familiar habits and make him solve problems he would not ordinarily create for himself.
That led into a broader discussion of criticism. Members agreed that useful criticism should be specific and should help the writer understand why a passage did or did not work. Reading work aloud was mentioned as a particularly useful test because inflection, sarcasm and rhythm may be clear in the author’s voice but not on the printed page.
Poetry brought its own questions, especially over punctuation, capitalization and line breaks. The general feeling was that such matters should serve the work rather than become rules for their own sake.
Self-publishing was also discussed in practical terms. The group talked about checking electronic manuscripts on an e-reader, the way type size can change the appearance of an electronic book, and the problems pictures and other special formatting can cause when a page is allowed to reflow. A future program on preparing electronic book files was mentioned.
Dean also answered questions about screenwriting and recommended that new writers study finished films and scripts to see how different writers handle character, structure and exposition. Alfred Hitchcock’s “I Confess” and the Bob Dylan film “I’m Not There” were among the works discussed.
Near the close of the workshop, members heard selections from the work of two of the group’s authors.
Brantly, who was unable to attend the meeting, was represented by a portion of a YouTube video he had previously posted online in which he read from “To Be King, Arc One,” part of his Elemental Shadow and Fire series.
Linda then read a portion of her own work live for those attending the workshop.
Both authors did an excellent job presenting their work and gave the group a chance to hear the written word as its author intended it to be heard.
By the time the workshop ended about 7:40 p.m., the evening had covered both sides of the writer’s desk: getting words onto the page and deciding what to do with them once they are there.
For a group made up of novelists, poets, editors, songwriters and people still deciding just what sort of writer they may be, that proved to be plenty of ground for one Wednesday night.