Home » Writing & Publishing » Writing from Harlem » Writing Workshop with Eleanora E.Tate

Writing Workshop with Eleanora E.Tate

© Walter Benefield

This article was first published on July 6, 2001. We re-run it here for your reading pleasure.

Attending my first but certainly not my last writer's workshop proved delightful and informative. The workshop left me with a magical I-can-do spirit toward my writing.

Allow me to set the stage: thirteen aspiring writers, twelve women and one man - the odd man out, excuse the pun - yours truly. Sitting at tables situated in the shape of a horseshoe around the author, educator and lecturer Eleanora E. Tate, we listened intently as Eleanora expounded on the processes of writing biographies for children and writing in general.

I arrived about ten minutes into the workshop with everyone involved in the first exercise of the day. We told real-live stories to illustrate one characteristic about ourselves. I was amazed how easily even in the lives of ordinary people interesting story lines could be produced from real-life for use in non-fiction as well as fiction.

I admit my enthusiasm was high before the workshop and I was not disappointed. Listening to Eleanora talk about writing was pleasant. She made writing books sound effortless but before we drifted into a fantasy with publishers knocking down our doors begging us for our novels, she kindly reminded us all that the writing process requires an enormous amount of work even before starting to write.

The workshop went well from beginning to end and as a capstone on four hours of down-to-earth instruction and encouragement, Eleanora explained in detail her process in writing starting from concept or idea usually based on community and family to finished novel. Listening to Eleanora explain the message behind her novel, “The Secrets of Gumbo Grove” and how she connects stories to bring people to life whether through biographies or fiction was impressive, to say the least.

It was refreshing to be in the company of a writer of Mrs. Tate’s caliber and to find her kind and soft-spoken but not lacking in authority pertaining to her craft. Eleanora dissolved an unsupported myth I had about writers in general being aloof, crass and generally difficult to be around.

As we departed Eleanora encouraged all workshop participants to find a subject or person to write about that will impassionate us in our writing, “it will keep you writing when you want to quit”, Eleanora explained, sound advice for veterans as well as us wannabes.

Eleanora E. Tate is the author of nine books for children, most recently The Minstrel's Melody, African American Musician and Don't Spilt the Pole: Tales of Down-Home Folk Wisdom.