How to Get the Most Out of a Writing Workshop

Your experience in a writing workshop has a lot to do with your attitude and expectations. It's a great place to get feedback from people who aren't familiar with your work. Most writers dedicated enough to attend a writing workshop are voracious readers. That means they can detect when something doesn't sound right. Here's how to get the most out of any writing workshop.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Make sure it's convenient for you to get to the writing workshop. You don't want any excuses not to go. It's best to find one at your local college or community center, but if you're stuck, join one of the lists on the Internet Writing Workshop page (see link in Resources).
2. Ask how many students will participate in the workshop. Ten to 15 writers is a good amount. It'll take forever to go through each critique if there are more than that. Less than 10 writers means you'll be hearing the same styles over and over.
3. Check out the workshop leader's credentials. Ideally, he's led writing workshops before or at least taught writing courses at the college or adult education level. Read some of his work if he's been published. This helps you understand what his strengths are.
4. Prepare at least 2 works to share before the workshop begins. For a fiction workshop, these can be short stories or novel excerpts. Make sure you choose sections of your novel that don't need much explaining to understand what's going on.
5. Write something new at least once every couple of weeks to share with the class. Workshops are excellent writing motivators so take advantage of it.
6. Give constructive criticism as often as you can. Start out by saying something positive about the work. This will encourage some of the others to do the same when it's time to critique your work.
7. Ask for specific comments before you begin reading your work. Listen respectfully and make notes as soon after the critique as you can. Pay special attention to misunderstandings or weaknesses that writing workshop participants observe.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't, under any circumstances, try to argue with anyone in a writing workshop. You'll come off looking like an amateur.

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