A few weeks ago in the book thread, a couple people expressed interest in starting a writing workshop/writing club. I’m using this thread to recruit people to join the workshop and lay out some general rules for how it will work.
What’s a writing workshop?
A writing workshop (or club, if you prefer something more casual) is a group of people that formally share their creative work with each other for critique and feedback. These workshops are usually segregated by genre, such as poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, but since we’re a smaller group of people, we’re going to lump everything together. As long as it’s writing, you’re welcome to share.
How will it work?
Every two weeks, a maximum of two people will share a piece of writing, which will then be distributed to the club. At the end of that two weeks, the readers will share their thoughtful feedback with the submitters. Two different people will then share their work with the group and the cycle repeats.
There will also be space for more casual discussion, but the focus of the workshop is the delivered piece of thoughtful feedback in the form of a “letter” and/or marked-up document of the piece in question. All of this will be handed asynchronously and through writing, so there’s no need for live video or audio discussion.
And obviously this isn’t school or anything, so we can be elastic with our deadlines. They are primarily for accountability.
Logistics?
We’re going to host this writing workshop on Google Groups. This is to make it easier to share and distribute work as well as limit visibility to people that are in the workshop. An important part of writing workshops is trust and vulnerability, so we only want folks who are submitting their own work to have access to the discussion and feedback.
That said, anyone can join!
Why should I join?
In my experience, writing workshops are great for three reasons:
- They encourage you to be a thoughtful reader, which in turn can make you a better writer.
- They give you exposure to constructive criticism from people who have no reason to lie, which in turn can make you a better writer.
- They give you deadlines, which in turn can make you a better writer.
Whether you write frequently or infrequently, whether it’s 3-act dramas or Balkan arcade cabinet reviews, I would encourage everyone here with an interest in writing to join. I can’t promise it will be amazing for you (though I certainly hope it is), but every writing workshop I’ve joined has benefited me. Even the ones I hated.
Any general guidelines or restrictions?
Yes, but it can be summed up as using your best judgement. I would ask that people do not submit overly long pieces or anything that would be controversial. There is a time and place for controversial writing, but considering this forum is something we all do for fun in our free time, I’d prefer to avoid any sort of meta-discussion or make anyone uncomfortable. So please be chill.
As for the feedback itself, I will post a few helpful tips and examples of what I consider to be thoughtful feedback closer to the date. But generally good feedback just involves saying “This is what worked for me and this is why” or the opposite. It’s not hard, but it is a bit different than just saying “I liked this.”
The only rule is that to join, you have to submit something at least once.
When does it start and how long is it?
The workshop will start one month from today on June 15th.
Ideally, I would want everyone to submit twice. But depending on how many people there are, we can be flexible on that. However, it will end. People are obviously welcome to continue this sort of collaboration on their own after the workshop, but I think a formal end date will work well here.
How do I join?
Fill out this survey so I can add you to the Google Group. If privacy is a concern for you, I recommend creating an email address for this purpose.
Again, the workshop starts on June 15th, so have something ready to go by then. Or use an old piece you always wanted feedback on. I’m not the police.
But what about….?
This is my first time running a writing workshop like this, so there are probably a few considerations I’m missing and there will be a fair amount of making it up as we go along. If you have questions or suggestions, I encourage you to use this thread. While it helps to have “a leader” for organizational purposes, I want to make sure this workshop is as useful and accommodating as it can be.
