If I were to give advice to anyone about to enter a workshop such as this one, I would definitely recommend going in with the expectation that your work will face some heat. This isn’t a bad thing, though. Hopefully, if someone is volunteering themselves for this kind of critical experience, they’re entering with the hope that they’ll be learning and growing from the experience. I’d also recommend taking the criticism from the workshop and applying it to other pieces that they’ve done. Part of the beauty of a workshop experience is how we get to examine our writing style in a broader sense to see where we can improve overall as writers. Therefore, I’d tell someone to take the same criticisms that they received on the poem, short story, etc. that they had critiqued in workshop and see where they can apply these comments in their other pieces of writing.
Monday, April 4, 2016
My Thoughts on Workshop
Coming into this workshop, I vaguely knew what to expect; I had taken a Creative Writing course in high school where workshop was a major component. However, this workshop experience was definitely a deviation from what I was used to (in a good way, of course). My main fear coming into this was that it would be one big festival of positivity and rainbows where we weren’t gonna be totally honest with one another. I’m really glad that I was wrong. I feel as though the feedback I got from everyone was useful and genuine. I was forced to ask new questions about the piece I wrote that I probably wouldn’t have been able to ask otherwise. I was also glad that even with the criticism, no one just sat there crapping on everyone else’s work. (So, thanks for being cool, guys.) This workshop experience also made me feel more comfortable sharing my work with people. When it comes to writing, I shy away from criticism, which is both totally understandable and totally silly. Gaining more exposure to this type of criticism would be beneficial to me in the long run, though it may seem a bit daunting at first.
If I were to give advice to anyone about to enter a workshop such as this one, I would definitely recommend going in with the expectation that your work will face some heat. This isn’t a bad thing, though. Hopefully, if someone is volunteering themselves for this kind of critical experience, they’re entering with the hope that they’ll be learning and growing from the experience. I’d also recommend taking the criticism from the workshop and applying it to other pieces that they’ve done. Part of the beauty of a workshop experience is how we get to examine our writing style in a broader sense to see where we can improve overall as writers. Therefore, I’d tell someone to take the same criticisms that they received on the poem, short story, etc. that they had critiqued in workshop and see where they can apply these comments in their other pieces of writing.
If I were to give advice to anyone about to enter a workshop such as this one, I would definitely recommend going in with the expectation that your work will face some heat. This isn’t a bad thing, though. Hopefully, if someone is volunteering themselves for this kind of critical experience, they’re entering with the hope that they’ll be learning and growing from the experience. I’d also recommend taking the criticism from the workshop and applying it to other pieces that they’ve done. Part of the beauty of a workshop experience is how we get to examine our writing style in a broader sense to see where we can improve overall as writers. Therefore, I’d tell someone to take the same criticisms that they received on the poem, short story, etc. that they had critiqued in workshop and see where they can apply these comments in their other pieces of writing.
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Casey I feel you. I had no idea what to expect coming into this seeing as I have never done something like this before (regretfully). And it was definitely good to expect some kind of heat. In the real world, not everything is going to be flowers and sunshine.
ReplyDeleteCasey, I definitely agree with you on the honesty and usefulness of everyone's feedback throughout the process. It was the perfect balance between fluff and over-criticism. As Deanna stated above, not everything will be flowers and sunshine. Revisions won't be gentle, but that's a good thing. Facing fire is probably the best thing for us as young writers. Its the way we should be learning. To continue the metaphor, the more you get singed, the better. Your work can only improve and sometimes it might take a lick of flame to get it there. It might be uncomfortable, but its necessary.
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