I’ve had several authors ask what a Write Club session is like, so I’ve included below one of our transcript summaries from Round 2 of Write Club. Hope this helps people understand how it works! :)
What is Write Club?
Write Club is a free, live feedback / workshopping session for writers on Substack. One featured author per session. Everyone reads the story ahead of time, then we gather on Discord and go around the room: favorite line, favorite scene, constructive criticism, questions for the author. The author responds, then we all head to the After-Party for drinks (BYOB), socialization, and shameless self-promotion.
Below is an example of the kind of feedback authors get from a Write Club session. See how you can participate here.
1ST RULE OF WRITE CLUB: Don’t talk about Write Club. Write about it.
2ND RULE OF WRITE CLUB: Critique others as you would have them critique you.
Write Club Round 2: Vesper L. Rayne
July 2nd, 2026
Our second featured author was Vesper L. Rayne, with Sir, This Is A Tractor Supply Store (Episode 1 of the Moonfang Destiny series), a romantasy satire in which Alpha Ryker Nightblood Moonfang, 847-year-old heir to a billion-dollar pack empire, personally blessed by a moon goddess, meets his destined mate in the checkout line of a Tractor Supply. She has coupons. It’s complicated. Vesper chose FULL FRONTAL CRITIQUE.
Another full house: sixteen writers, including one member attending her very first Discord chat ever (”My sons have threatened to disown me over this.” Lunetois’s counsel: “Disown them first to display dominance”). What follows are highlights from the discussion.
The author’s takeaway
“The positive feedback I was getting, I love that people sat with it and they laughed… I have a full manuscript completed (full-on supernatural romance) that I’m editing, but THIS is just FUN… and the more feedback I get, the better I get, so I just decided: you know what? Let’s keep going, see what happens.” — Vesper L. Rayne, nine hearts on her closing message
The feedback, reader by reader
Logan Raith
Round 1’s featured author went first and opened with a full tribute: “This story is wall-to-wall great lines. It was very difficult to choose just one. As someone who writes comedy, I am baffled when someone can stack jokes on jokes on jokes without ever slowing down. Bra-freaking-vo. Chef’s kiss… The one Gordon Ramsay reserves for perfect Beef Wellington.” His forced choice:
“He had survived 847 years. He had been blessed personally by the moon goddess Selunaria Bloodhowl, who had carved his destiny into the stars with her own sacred hands on a Thursday she would later describe as poorly spent.”
Favorite scene: the parking lot. Ryker holding the chicken feed, Selunaria watching, the 847-years runner paying off when it’s cut off by the em dash. “Man, it pays dividends there.” His confusions, doubling as the night’s two clarity notes: “He did not have chickens” (what’s the joke’s logic?) and “OKAY, she said, straightening. OKAY. WE GO AGAIN” (what does that mean?). And the question everyone wanted asked: “Why??? What was your motivation to write this? Don’t misunderstand. I, and lots of other people, judging by the crazy amount of interaction you’ve gotten on part one, am so glad you did.”
David (your moderator)
Best line, nine laughing reactions, “the entire thesis in 10 words”:
“She had scoliosis. The bag was heavy. He understood none of this.”
“I love this line that basically tells us everything. She is dealing with the mundane and he has no clue.” Best scene: the wolf’s survival assessment of Janice, “especially the end: ‘She has a Joann’s card too — We could craft things.’ I love how the wolf is all about survival instinct.” The only critique he could find: the end of the Selunaria scene. “OKAY WE GO AGAIN was a bit too abstract. I’d like a little more expository from this section since there’s none anywhere else.” Question: “Where did this idea come from? And what kind of drugs were involved?”
Eris Index
Favorite line and favorite scene, one and the same: “Alpha Ryker Nightblood Moonfang, destroyer of territories, stood holding the Layer Crumbles and watched her check the side pocket.” Logan had already asked her question, so she passed on the rest.
Rita Quill
Favorite line:
“She has seen the arms. Behold the arms. BEHOLD—”
Favorite sequence: Janice picking up graham crackers “and not just any juice but the good juice with the little orange on it.” “The added detail of the juice was just a cherry on top of the entire scene.” Her question, for the record books: “How much smut did you read to come up with the name Alpha Ryker Nightblood Moonfang?”
Maddox Clausinger
Favorite line: “The Smoulder softened. Involuntarily. Against all training.” (”Poor bastard’s charm didn’t work.”) Not-sure-if-critique: “It was disorienting at first but maybe that was the point. I got the jokes after a while.” And: “Good job. Totally see the making fun of tropes. I guess these books push it real hard!”
Joshua Bader
Joshua stacked two favorites, the poorly-spent-Thursday passage capped by “She got the good juice, his wolf said quietly. The one with the little orange on the box,” plus a favorite from a later episode, quoted to lure the room deeper into the series: Ryker, “Alpha of the Cascades… sitting cross-legged in the dirt with a sewing kit he had ordered express shipping, carefully tying off a small knot on a tiny quilted bonnet.”
His critique was the bluntest and most practical of the night: “And I’m one to talk because I’m guilty of the same: organization of your Substack is a mess. When do new episodes release? Where is the table of contents? Regularity is your friend in keeping readers hooked on your serial.” Question: “What’s the long-term plan for Moonfang Destiny? A book at some point? Disappearing behind a paywall? Adding a buy-me-a-coffee button?”
Laurie McIntosh
Attending her first Discord chat ever: “This story is absolutely delightful. Every possible romantasy trope is skewered to perfection. That’s it for my rookie Discord critique.”
Kane Iyer
“Overall, really well done. Good writing and quite funny! I liked the line about Greg from produce: ‘Greg from produce did that too. It didn’t move the line.’ And I particularly liked that it seemed to be poking fun at the romantasy genre. The light-hearted jabs made me feel like I was ‘in’ on the joke. When authors make you feel that way, you feel special.” Two notes: a possible Tuesday/Thursday continuity mixup around Becca, and “a lot of short one-liners, perhaps some of them could be combined and could improve the flow.”
Lisa (SnowPuppy)
Favorite line: the twelve-abs line. “It’s doing so much work, including being a social commentary on the ridiculousness of our preoccupation with physical perfection, but in a way that’s hilarious and oh soooo sooo sooo consumable.” The thing she enjoyed most: “Reading it. All of it. Multiple times.” Constructive criticism: “I do not believe I am fit to offer any. XD” Question: “What was your inspiration? The thing that made you think, ‘You know what? The world really needs THIS…’”
Gonz Paoli
“First of all, I was SO PLEASANTLY SURPRISED by this story! I am not a romance reader. At all. Give me spaceships and robots all day lol. But this story flipped it on its head and had me (almost literally) howling! The way this ancient sex god wolf guy, a being who has literally subdued THE MOON, is fumbling in front of this (seemingly) random lady. I loved it!” Favorite moment: the wolf realizing she bought us snacks. Favorite line: the BEHOLD-the-arms breath. “BROKE ME LOL.”
His criticism was an audience-strategy note wrapped in a rave: “I have NO NOTES. I loved it! Except maybe… someone who would read comedy, but not romance, wouldn’t pick this up. I did for the Write Club.” Question: is this primarily a comedy, or comedy mixed with actual romance? (”Now that I’ve asked, I realize it’s a silly question lol.”) Postscript, in bold: “PS: TWELVE ABS!! LMAO.”
Lunetois
Favorite moment:
“No one had ever— Selunaria closed her eyes.”
“This sighing submission as Her Majesty comes to realize that after 847 years a dog is still a dog. It’s kind of interesting to me that other people did not seem to get what she said next, but then maybe they did not spend so much of their time around frustrated women as I have (if only I were not so frustrating).”
His critique asked for one more layer: “Conceptually I really like this story. The characters are funny, the line-to-line stuff is funny… but in the end I kind of wished for more imagery and description. I know what a Tractor Supply is, have been in several of them. I think you could give us just a few tiny details to make it come to life a bit more. Maybe that particular shade of beige the shelving units come in, or the distant sound of the duck for sale paddling miserably in its kiddy pool.” His question looked furthest ahead: how many of these characters recur, and “could you see spinning this out into something (slightly) more serious à la Venture Brothers… do you have an ultimate product in mind or not?”
Megan Marrow
“I adore this series. I am an avid romantasy reader so I love the satire.” Her favorite part:
“Something cracked open in his ancient chest and he did not have a name for it. His wolf had a name for it. His wolf said: she bought us snacks.”
“Because she nailed his love language. He cannot process what he has done to her. But he understands the gift of food. As a romantasy reader I think this is beyond satire. It’s actually romantasy gold. And the moon goddess slayed me.” Critique: “a bit of POV switching that got me lost at times,” one of the most-agreed-with notes of the night. “But I am here for the emotionally constipated vampire and Dave.”
Matt Gardner
Favorite quote: Becca, in full. Three years on the register, watermelon gum “for six years, would continue to chew watermelon gum until she retired or the world ended, whichever came first,” scanning the rewards card “with the energy of a woman who had already decided how her Tuesday was going to go.” “I love Becca… She is so checked out… I felt seen somehow.” His full critique: “No critique, I frickin loved it. No questions. Great story.”
The Fiction Forager
“I found this absolutely hilarious. Love the tone. Specifically really love the addition of the moon goddess. Feel like it amplified Ryker’s authenticity, like he’s both very silly and also very genuine at the same time. Like he could’ve just been a cardboard cutout, but he’s not.” Her open question: “I can’t tell when you end on the checkout girl if there’s a deeper significance to her character, or if we’ll see her more in the future, or if it’s to emphasize the mundane environment… I feel like maybe I’m missing something there.”
Elli the 10th
Elli’s question dug into the meta-story: “I was wondering about the escalation of your arc IRL. What happened as you released that made you think… hell yeah, I gotta keep this going! Or was that never a component of your decisions?” It’s the question Vesper’s closing takeaway answered in full.
Questions for the author — and answers
Why did you write this? “I really just needed a laugh… I wanted to make fun of every trope in supernatural romance, and decided to do it bit by bit.” And later: “Put the Alpha wolf in a Walmart, or a Costco, and see how they deal with coupons, standing in line… the exhaustion of daily life.”
The chicken feed? “He has decided that she is his mate, even if Janice is not in on it, and he will carry her chicken feed, despite the fact that he himself does not have chickens.” And no, they are not parked next to each other. “He is just… committed to following her.”
OKAY. WE GO AGAIN? “Selunaria is just… listen, I did twelve abs… now I have TO DO IT AGAIN.” (”The patience of the moon goddess, she really has been THROUGH IT. She is just done with things. She and her gum.”)
How much smut did you read to come up with the name? “Oh honey… laughs… yes just… yes.”
What’s the long-term plan? More Ryker, more Dwight, more Becca, “and I even have some plans for Nigel, the bat in Wales.” No paywall for now; she’d love to do a book. Episodes drop weekly on Mondays, six are up, and the Substack reorganization is coming. Becca (”she is the one that grounds everything”) will have her moment, and “Evander already has his eyes on her.”
What made the world need THIS? “It is the absurdity of wolves and vampires dealing with the mundane and every day… The fact though is that kindness is woven throughout it… sometimes we all just need a snack and a warm blanket and a nap. So Janice is doing the same thing, to a werewolf. With abs. Next to the deworming paste.” (Nine hearts.)
Is it primarily a comedy? David, before Vesper could answer: “It’s a how-to guide.”
Write Club runs nightly at 7pm EST, booked through July 21 so far, with open slots up for grabs. Free to attend, free to submit. Want your story featured? Come say hi.
Thank you David for putting this all together. Also the thumbnail for the best question 😭😂 She must be an observant reader.
David! Thank you!