My first short fiction writing class + workshopping

Searching · Mar 5, 2011

So, this semester I enrolled in Writing Short Fiction. And tomorrow I get to workshop a short story, something I've never done in real life before. Exciting stuff! I am particularly interested in what the other students will think and what sort of comments I will get. I think people are a lot less likely to offer an honest assessment in person compared to over the internet, especially if it's harsh. There's four or five girls and about three guys. Mostly YA, chick lit, thriller and horror readers. One fellow is into HP Lovecraft, his stuff should be interesting to read. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anyone with real passion for writing, but maybe people are shy in their first week.

What do people think about the process of workshopping? To me it seems like a great opportunity to get a general idea about how well a piece of writing sits with the audience, or discovering that something is really wrong if more than one person mentions it.

Susan Coffin · Mar 5, 2011

Searching,

About 18 years ago, I took a writing workshop through the local college for three semesters, which was a year and a half. We learned about the craft, were required to write at least 2000 each week, and had to workshop our stories (or poem, play, or novel chapter) a certain number of times during the year. Sometimes, the instructor also asked you on the spot to allow your piece to go through workshop.

My time in that class was one of the best learning experiences in my life when it comes to writing. I loved hearing what others had to say about my work, and also learning how to give feedback. I would recommend a workshop to anyone.

Good luck on your workshop tomorrow. Please tell us how it goes!

Maryn · Mar 6, 2011

I co-founded a critique group which workshops stories and novels in the one genre we have in common, although some of us also write in other genres and forms. A good group can be terrific, a bad one toxic. We'll cross our fingers for your class to be the good kind--although since it's under the leadership of the instructor, he or she would probably stop the 'toxic' sort of feedback which hurts the writer without helping at the same time.

In my experience, people are more tactful but still note negatives in person--but not at first. They're careful not to insult or offend, as they should be, but initially for many people that means noting only the most trifling negatives, because it's too risky to announce the big ones.

In time, though, your class can come together and really work. My critique group started with a class we all took.

Maryn, grizzled veteran

Susan Coffin · Mar 6, 2011

I am also part of a critique group now, which I love. The main rule is to respect your fellow writer.

dancingandflying · Mar 6, 2011

I'm currently enrolled in a Creative Writing class. It's pretty interesting. We have a fairly even distribution of girls versus guys, but it's a small class--maybe seven or eight of us? We started out the semester with about double that number.

It's a once-a-week class and we get a prompt every week. Mostly it's been poetry assignments, but we're now getting into short fiction writing, which I'm tremendously excited about. We do some freewriting in class, as well as workshopping one or two pieces. We have a week to write comments on people's pieces, so the critiques are generally pretty thorough. So far, it's been fairly useful to me. Getting my pieces workshopped in class is wonderful because we go pretty in-depth with the pieces we workshop.

Good luck with your workshop tomorrow!

Victoria · Mar 6, 2011

A college workshop was the first time I actually shared my work with anyone other than family. I felt like I was sending my firstborn off to the barraks. I noticed a few things about the feedback. First, the notes written in the margins were much more direct than the discussion remarks. Second, most of the negative feedback came from females who said I didn't write like a woman. And third, my instructor never gave his personal opinion, only advice on technical issues. Overall, the greatest benefit for me was getting used to handing over my work to strangers for critique. It also gave me the confidence to continue, despite the fact that I apparently write outside my gender. Good luck, and try to have fun with it. It can be a real kick.

My first short fiction writing class + workshopping

Searching

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

Maryn

At Sea

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

dancingandflying

Is it tea time yet?

Victoria

practical experience, FTW