RIRW exists to promote excellence in women’s and popular fiction, to help writers become published and build careers in their writing field, and to provide continuing support for writers within the women’s and popular fiction publishing industry. Formed in 1983 as a Romance Writers of America chapter, we disaffiliated in 1988. We are an independent, nonprofit organization in Rhode Island.
If you are serious about writing popular fiction, we invite you to join us! Click here to see membership benefits.
We welcome everyone, without regard to race, color, national origin, disability, religion, cultural identity, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, physical appearance, or any other identity distinction. Furthermore, we recognize that because racism, homophobia, and other forms of bias are systemic in our national culture, people from marginalized communities continue to be denied advancement in our industry. RIRW strives to address this by raising awareness within our membership and increasing our efforts to attract members from a variety of backgrounds to enrich our community of writers.
We meet from September to June on the first Saturday of the month (except for February, when we hold our annual retreat). Because of holidays and/or other conflicts, the date or venue may change (scroll down to see list of dates). We will announce changes here on our home page. We do meetings via ZOOM.
Check us out on our public Facebook page (click here!)
May 3, 2025 — Grant Miller: “Styles make Fights”
Workshop: “Styles Make Fights”: It’s a phrase used in boxing. The fighting style often determines the outcome as much as the actual skill level. For writing, sometimes you design a fighting style based on the character’s personality. In this workshop we’ll talk about how to use fight scenes to advance your plot and develop your characters by designing character-based fighting styles.
Bio: Grant Miller is a writer and educator based in Chesapeake, VA. He has self-published six books, including the Nephilim Chronicles and the Archangels Series (which is still ongoing).
Note: For regular meetings, we welcome Visitors for up to two regular meetings before you need to join. If you want to check us out, please send us a message by NOON on Friday (day before meeting) and we’ll send you a ZOOM link. Come join your fellow writers for a free-ranging discussion!
For regular meetings, we gather to chat at noon; Meeting starts at 12:30, with workshops starting about 1:30
Fall Schedule, 2024:
September 7 Susan Kaye Quinn
October 5 – Renita McKinney on Trends and Tropes
November 2 – Brenda Chin on Layering
December 14 (ARIA Expo is Dec 7) – Jeanette Smith on Self-editing
Winter/Spring Schedule 2025:
January 4 Roundtable
Jan. 31 – 1 February 1 (Retreat, with Deb Dixon and Jo Ann Ferguson)
March 1 – Holly Darling, Email marketing
April 5 – Roundtable
May 3 – Grant Miller, Fight scenes
June 7 – Renita McKinney