The Ubergroup

About

The Ubergroup The Ubergroup is a 501(c)3 nonprofit providing low-cost fine arts education for adults. We offer university-level coursework, support, and networking for all writing-related art formats (including but not limited to: commercial and literary novels, stage and screen plays, short fiction, comics, nonfiction and academic, podcasts and webseries, picture books, poetry, IP writing, as well as some writing-adjacent arts such as acting and illustration) at a pace suitable for adults with full-time jobs and families.

Members have access to a high-quality peer group that will help them polish personal projects: live digital table reads for spec scripts, development of unsold work, and editing projects under contract to meet agent/editor/producer requirements. Our feedback network is closed to alumni of our training program only.

We accept writers in the English language from around the globe. Programming is available in all time zones. We are also a registered CIC in the UK.

Cost

There is no cost to apply for the initial three-month introductory course and screening program.

The Ubergroup operates on a pay-what-you-can basis. There are sliding-scale payment tiers, calculated to cover operating costs and modest salaries for staff, but as we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit, even the highest tiers are dramatically cheaper than a for-profit university. Members select privately what they can afford to pay. The lowest tier is completely free. There is no requirement to demonstrate need, as we do not believe in mandating performative poverty. There are no paywalls anywhere and all services are available to all members regardless of ability to pay.

Donations and sponsorships are gratefully accepted from non-members who wish to support arts education. Admissions are strictly merit-based and applicants who do not demonstrate adequate competence, kindness, and work ethic cannot purchase membership for any price.

Donations via ko-fi are fully tax-deductible.

Application

The Ubergroup is coordinated via Discord. After making a Discord account, please join the Ubergroup server and paste a query letter or CV in the Apply for Membership channel. You are welcome to ask questions in the Waiting Room channel.

Intakes are approximately every three months. Please check into the Waiting Room 2 - 4 weeks before the next advertised intake to answer follow up questions regarding your application. Each group of new applicants will participate in a three-month introductory crash course that provides an overview of all major types of commercial writing, from fiction to film to theatre to comics to podcasts, as well as market analysis, popular English-language story structures, the industry, and developmental editing. If you are already a working professional in a writing-related field, some material will be familiar, but a large portion of it will not be. All coursework is designed at an undergraduate-equivalent level, but highly condensed, akin to fitting a whole year into a summer intensive. Some of the material may go by shockingly fast; many full members voluntarily retake the introductory course in order to dig deeper into particular topics. Please allow two hours per week to actively participate in a video call plus approximately two to four hours per week for homework for the duration of the course. Calls are scheduled to take global time zones of each incoming class into account.

During the program, you will receive developmental edits on one full-length work (such as a novel-length manuscript, evening-length play, or feature-length film) or several short works (such as several tv episodes, a collection of short stories, or two children’s books) of your choosing. You will be trained to provide relevant and format-appropriate feedback to other people’s work, which may be outside your current area of familiarity. All successful graduates of the program will be qualified as entry-level freelance developmental editors.

We believe that success in any commercial fine art is 10% talent, 10% luck, and 80% showing up and putting in the work. We cannot control the first two, so we focus on the last and largest category. Your trial period is an opportunity to showcase the ways in which you are a fundamentally kind and dedicated human being, and to decide if the environment resulting from our screening process is one you want to be involved with.

Goals

An Ubergroup sorting mechanism: CUBA goals.

The key to giving high quality developmental edits is to understand and respect the author's goals. Different genres and age brackets have their own conventions, as do different publication methods (traditional vs self) and formats (novel, flash, script, poetry, picture book, etc.) The Ubergroup attempts to avoid baseless arguments over how one “should” write and has developed CUBA as a set of common vocabulary to help you communicate your needs.

• Commercial - I don't care about literary merits, as long as it sells.
• Balanced - I have both Commercial and Artistic goals, and I've chosen some of each.
• Artistic - I want to meet my own artistic standards. I am not concerned about how well it sells.
• Undeclared - I just want to finish this manuscript. I'll worry about what to do with it later.

Important note: CUBA describes which direction you want to change, not how much you are willing to change.

An example of an artistic goal is to have beautiful prose. That's not necessary for mass-market sales and may even hurt you. (The widest audience groups dislike words that are too difficult.) An artistic author faced with this choice would keep elevating their prose, whereas a commercial one would simplify to please the masses. Another artistic goal would be historical accuracy in historical fiction, or scientific accuracy in science fiction. The widest audience doesn't care, but an artistic author personally does.

‘Artistic’ is not a synonym for ‘My prose/characters/plot are already perfect and non-negotiable.’ That's called being stubborn. The Ubergroup is focused on developmental edits: major changes to character, plot, prose, tone, premise and other fundamental ideas. The only reason to apply is if you are actively interested in improving those things. If you are already satisfied with the basic content of your manuscript, congratulations! You do not need a developmental edit, you are ready to self-publish. If you only seek line edits (spelling, grammar and minor polishing) you also do not need us. Seek out a copyeditor.

Finally, CUBA is a sliding scale. It is a way to explain how often you will decide in favour of the commercial choice vs the artistic choice. A 75% commercial author, when faced with the question of ‘do I improve the literary quality or do what sells?’ will choose what sells 75% of the time. An author who is 25% commercial will only choose what sells 25% of the time.

‘Balanced’ is less ‘laid back and agreeable,’ more ‘horribly torn between options.’ It means ‘I have really strong opinions about what makes a high-quality work, but I also want to sell well, so these decisions about which direction to change towards are never easy.’

All writers who have yet to complete a first draft of their first novel (spec script, poetry collection, etc) are Undeclared, even if you have an idea of where you may eventually want to be.

Tones

An Ubergroup Communication Tool: Critique Tones

There is more than one valid way to communicate with each other. A frequent misunderstanding between writers and editors when giving or receiving feedback is one of tone. The content of a critique may be excellent, yet come off as offensive if accidentally delivered in a tone the author cannot stand. Disliking an editor’s tone doesn't make their criticism wrong, and any writer can greatly smooth their career path by acclimating to multiple tones, and by communicating in advance if a certain manner of speech will get their hackles up. Similarly, a new developmental editor will have far less conflict with authors if they are able to adjust their tone as needed, and by communicating in advance if there are manners of speech that grate them to emulate.

The moderation team has grouped common critique styles into three loose categories, as follows:

• Literal. Bare bones, and as neutral and concise as possible. People who like this style perceive it as professional and clear. People who dislike it perceive it as impersonal and uninterested.
  
  Example: "I dislike the name Johnny for a fantasy character. It doesn't suit the world at all, and damages my immersion in the story."


• Colloquial. Sarcastic, satirical, containing blue humour. People who like this style perceive it as relaxed and genuine. People who dislike it perceive it as rude and biting.
  
  Example: "I hate the name Johnny for a fantasy character; I hate it like poison. I think it is poison as far as your world-building is concerned. An adult named Johnny is a guy with a pompadour and a pleather jacket, not a knight. Calling a guy who wears chain maille armour (not even chain mail armor) ‘Johnny’ strikes a jarring note right from the start and deals your credibility as a narrator a vicious left hook from which, I believe, it never even begins to recover."


• Diplomatic. Encouraging, positive, validating. People who like this style perceive it as courteous and supportive. People who dislike it consider it pandering and passive aggressive.
  
  Example: "Johnny is an interesting choice of name for a knight. It's not something I usually associate with fantasy. I wonder if it’s necessarily the most popular thing?"

Like CUBA Goals, these categories should be seen as a sliding scale. Very few people fall at an extreme. Most people are between two, and fluctuate depending on whom they're critiquing. You may prefer receiving a different kind of critique than you typically give. Take a moment to identify if there are any examples above you find offensive and would dislike if someone critiqued your work in that tone.

Your initial self-assessment isn’t final; you may find you change with time. Our moderators will spot check periodically and help members adjust how they describe both their CUBA goals and critique tone to the bell curve of the Ubergroup.

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';