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Writing Workshops

© Kelli Brooke Haywood

As writers, we have probably been a member in a writing workshop at some time or another. Some of us probably have consistent writing groups that read all of our work. Some of us receive our writing workshop experience from the university setting. Workshopping our writing has become a major part of creative writing and can be very important to the fiction writer. But, what do they really do for us? Do they really make our work stronger?

Most workshops consist of a group of writers that have the goal in common to write a good piece of fiction, poetry, or whatever. Writers hand out drafts of their work in advance to other members of the group. The group then meets again to discuss whatever they had to read. Depending on the group criteria, the writer is to remain silent and take notes until the group is finished and then they may ask any questions that they still have concerning the piece.

There are many problems and pluses that I have found in workshops being conducted in this way. Most of the workshops I have participated in are too gentle with the writer. I will submit a piece, knowing that it has many problems that I have yet to fix, but the group does nothing but talk about the good things in the piece. It is like they don't want to hurt your feelings, but as a writer shouldn't we expect to get our toes stepped on once in a while. Yes, it is a plus to hear a reader talk about what they enjoyed. I often leave workshops with the drive to immediately go home and write. However, how much does it help me to hear only about the good things? There are good and bad things that we as writers will not be able to find without the help of outside readers. I have heard horror stories about workshops becoming like fighting matches too. Luckily, I have never experienced this, but I often wonder if it would be a refreshing change of pace.

Too, when readers respond to a piece, how do we know what they have really gotten from it? If I have handed someone a piece about a boy who deeply mourns for years the loss of a puppy he had for only twenty minutes, someone in the group might express the thought that they don't believe that the boy would mourn that long. I know from that response that I have not created a believable situation for this reader. Do I know what this reader did take from the piece though? Maybe, it worked with this person on other levels. Some groups I have participated in have required an author to include an agenda (questions they want answered) with every piece. However, this will often times bring the focus too much onto those questions and not leave any room for other comments. Some groups have opted to retell the story, as they absorbed it, to the writer. This is a little better, but then there is no room for more picky response to the piece.

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