Working Together: The Many Benefits of Writing Workshops
by Alissa Grosso
I decided to join a writing workshop for a number of reasons. The big reasons were that I wanted to improve my writing and become a published writer. I also liked the idea of being connected with others like myself who were struggling to become successful writers. I chose the Critters Online Workshop after reading an article by James Patrick Kelly in Asimov's. It has proven to be a wise choice and a very rewarding experience.
What I Learned
One of my biggest concerns was that a bunch of struggling writers couldn't possibly give me the help I needed to improve my own writing, but fortunately, you don't have to be a successful writer in order to be a valuable critiquer. In fact, all you really need to be is a good reader. Most of us have a lot of reading experience under our belts. So, when we sit down to read a story from one of the other workshop members, we can immediately see what works and what doesn't work We know which endings ring true and which endings seem hollow. By providing the writer of the story with our reaction we help them to find ways to improve the story and to make it publishable.
Good constructive criticism examines both the good and the bad aspects of the story, "The dialog was very realistic," "The description of the setting seemed a bit weak." Compliments are easy to take. Bad criticism burns like a swallow of homemade whiskey. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to accept what seems to us like excessively harsh criticism of a very good story. Admittedly, the first few times I received critiques on my stories, I was devastated. But most of the time, I found (after I had recovered from the initial pain) that my critiquers were right. Sure, there are times that I will receive a criticism or complaint that seemed way off base, and there are times when one critiquer will say, "I loved the description of the work environment. It really rang true for me," and another critiquer will say, "The description of the work environment didn't seem very realistic." This is inevitable. Literature is subjective. Hell, I've gotten critiques on a single story that run the gamut from, "I loved this story" to "I didn't enjoy this story at all." Workshops teach us not only how to accept criticism, but how to distinguish helpful criticism from unhelpful criticism.
