Fiction Writing Workshop #5

Posted by Jennifer Jensen Mar 7, 2008

In my fiction-writing class, we finally got to our first short story critique. Only it wasn’t a critique like I’m used to. Instructor Dan said we would be learning more from each other’s stories than from what we submit ourselves, and he was right.

Workshopping Guidelines

First, the author of the story was “not in the room.” No questions, no comments, and we were to pretend she wasn’t there; therefore, we didn’t have to worry about hurting her feelings.

Then we had three steps:

1. Come to a consensus on what the story is – drama, comedy, character sketch, etc.
2. Discuss what works in the story, in this case, very good characterization and details.
3. Discuss what doesn’t work in the story, namely that it needed a plot. It was a good character study, but we weren’t even sure whose story it was.

I was sitting next to the author and could see when she “got it.” She seemed pleased at knowing what was lacking and how to fix it. Overall, it seemed to be a positive experience, nobody talked trash, and yes, I’ll have the courage to submit something.

Writing Assignment

We turned in the envelopes from our week’s writing, but Dan still isn’t saying what he’ll do with them. This week’s assignment is still 30 minutes of longhand freewriting, but doesn't have to be strictly dialogue. Hurray! And we don't need to put them in envelopes - he feels we've learned how to not go back and edit. I suspect that the whole purpose of the envelopes is the letting-go process.

Read Fiction Writing Workshop #1 to start at the beginning of the writing class blogs.