Other Worlds is a workshop for adults. It is "open" only in the sense that anyone who wants to write SF and fantasy is welcome. This is not a mainstream workshop. Sorry. Work submitted here must fall into the categories listed at Genres. We do not support mainstream or horror, for the simple reason that those genres have their own needs unrelated to the needs of spec fi. There are other lists which would be better for that purpose, which you can find at our Links page. Beginners and pros are both welcome here, indeed actively solicited!

We are not your average workshop. Our standards for critiques are pretty high. No 100-word say-anything crits allowed here. The feedback you get is detailed, sometimes painful, just about always helpful, and geared toward professional publication. If you just want somebody to read and admire your work, this isn't the place for you. If you want your darlings raked (kindly) through the coals in pursuit of a higher writing standard and a shot at catching an editor's eye, read on.

Prospective embers MUST agree to the  workshop rules  before being allowed to join.

GENERAL

• Members must be at least 18 years of age.
• All members must provide their real name to the admins. 
• All posts to the workshop must be signed with the sender's real name.
• No flames: rudeness will get you nowhere but off this list. 
• All subs MUST be clearly speculative fiction.
• Headers for all posts must reflect the subject as listed below.
• Post a warning in the subject line for any extreme violence or graphic sex, re: "Sub: Aliens in Love (graphic sex)".
• You are not restricted as to word count; we encourage novelists as well as short storyists, and we have varying levels of crits to suit different types of subs. You are expected to state the type of crit desired when posting your work.
• While there is no length limit on what can be subbed here, remember the sub to crit ratio, and be prepared to do a lot of critting in exchange for having your epic critted all at once. However, this flexibility allows those of us with works in final editing to move forward at a relatively rapid pace. Anyone abusing this privilege, i.e. dumping a novel, taking the crits, and never returning the favor, will be asked to leave the list. We expect that we're all above that here and this action will never be necessary.

The full text of the workshop rules and formatting tips can be found here.

PARTICIPATION

• Participation is required: no one gets to come and read without either subbing or critting and preferably both. No one gets to sub exclusively, either. The rule of thumb requirement is two crits for every sub. This ensures that all members are helping each other and not merely coasting on others' good will.
• New members must post six critiques before subbing their own work.
• Members must submit at least two crits/subs per month to remain in good standing. Two consecutive months without meeting this requirement will result in removal from the lists. If personal circumstances do not permit participation at the required level, email the Admins that you wish to remain a member and will return on a specified date. Failure to update the Admins of status after the specified date will result in removal from the list. You may rejoin at a later time.
• "Short crits" do not count for credit. Short crits are classed as non-specific "Gee, I love this" or "Couldn't find anything to comment on, keep up the good work" type feedback. We expect thoughtful, in-depth reactions to the works, even if you don't feel qualified to do line critiques on grammar. Everyone has a reader's opinion, even if you're still struggling to write good dialogue and prose of your own.
• There are different levels of crits and subs possible.  If you sub a 250k word novel, you will NOT have to pay back 2 crits for every chapter or every set number of words. You can crit 3 other novels and pay for it all at once, or crit dozens of short stories. Your choice. 
• Material subbed to the list is copyrighted and will be treated as such. Nothing, we repeat nothing, will be disseminated to third parties by any member or admin, period. Prospective members who do not agree to this rule will not be allowed to join. Should any material which appeared on this list subsequently show up elsewhere under someone else's name, that party can expect legal action from the abused author. You know who we'll be rooting for.
• Disputes between members of any workshop will be handled by the admin. There are no exceptions. Private wars will most likely result in one or both parties being asked to leave. We treasure our members, but we treasure peace even more.
• Critique guidelines are specified here. Failure to abide by them will be handled off-list by the Admins.
• Some members may have browsers which do not support attachments or long submissions. Any single post to the list, therefore, will be kept below 4000 words. Multiple posts may be made at one time, however. No attachments are allowed. Please disable the HTML feature in your email program.
• The Files section is used to post most work (NOT crits, only subs). Members can dump a whole novel to Files at once; in fact, we encourage it, because you can't judge the plot of a novel without reading the whole novel. It doesn't take a year to get feedback on a whole novel here.

CRITIQUE GUIDELINES

A critiquing workshop needs community standards or else anything goes. In that case, why bother showing up? You already have "anything"! Our standards are based on what is generally accepted or sought by contemporary publishers of both short stories and novels in our genres. The requirements generally held up for good fiction as opposed to cheapo-junko will be considered a norm here, too. Sure, you can get schlock published, but where, for how little, and if you are already decently published, how many readers will it lose you?

Those of you unfamiliar with the limitations of the World Wide Web with regard to formatting posts should go here before attempting to paste your work into email for the first time.

To help those unfamiliar with the vocabulary or standards, we are posting some essays and a tech-term index:

The Other Worlds Writers' Workshop Basics of Critiquing

The Turkey City Lexicon, Annotated
From the Austin, TX, SF workshops.

A Central Index of Writers' Technical Terms
Good to look up a single term someone threw at you in a crit.

Avoiding Shortcrits
All newbies to the workshop should read this to avoid unpleasant surprises.

High Level Critting
Many people think line crits are the only way to go. Novels in draft require high level  crits first.