Many years ago, when I first began writing poems and fiction
in earnest, I wanted to do something with my writing but I didn’t know what “doing
something” even meant. I desperately wanted to share my poems with someone
other than my best friend or my mother, to put them out there in the world
where they could be discussed, and where other writers could help me understand
how to make them even better. So I signed up for a graduate level poetry class
at Cleveland State University. Terrified to actually hand out poems to a group
of people I hardly knew, I would go over them again and again, pushing myself
to make my poetry sing; to say something beautifully, with just the right words.
Workshopping
my writing was not easy. I often came home devastated, knowing I had more to
learn, thinking it all impossible, and yet I’d wake each morning with an idea, or
a perfect word or a perfect phrase, or a new concept—an “ah ha” moment that
compelled me to keep writing. A new found belief that, yes, I could write, and
I could get better, if I only kept at it and wrote every day.
I could
have quit after that first class, but I signed up for another. I was addicted
to workshopping. I couldn’t see myself as a viable writer without workshopping.
I wanted
more. I asked someone in class if she would be interested in forming a workshop.
She said yes, and that she knew someone else, a prose writer, who might want to
join us. Long story short, that first meeting with the three of us lead to establishing
The East Side Writers, a workshop group that has been meeting once a month for over
twenty-five years.
Usually
there are about nine of us. Nine is a good number, especially since not everyone
can make all the meetings. Less than eight or nine people can mean that you
don’t get enough feedback, more than that can mean that you get too much feedback
and can’t take it all in. The number of people in a workshop is important, as
well as what you do with all the opinions and helpful advice you get from a
critique.
How to start
a workshop, and how to keep it going, take a bit of finesse. I’ve learned a lot
over these twenty-five years, not just about writing, but about group dynamics
and the process of workshopping.
Some
writers don’t like workshops and don’t need them, but many of us do. Along with
my own writers’ group, I run three workshops for The Cuyahoga County Public
Library: an Intro to Fiction Workshop, an Intermediate Fiction Workshop, and an
Advanced Fiction Workshop, and each meets once a month. Library workshops and public workshops are quite
different than private workshops, but all of them have their benefits, as well
as pitfalls.
Would you
like to begin your own creative writing workshop and bring together your peers to
discuss and improve your fiction, memoirs, poetry, or creative
non-fiction? Or would you like a few
tips on how to keep your group running smoothly? I’m happy to speak to groups about the
process of workshopping and running a successful workshop. We’ll talk about such
subjects as finding peers, when and where to meet, how to offer a helpful
critique, how to listen to a critique, and how to move on to your next draft
after a critique.
You
can contact me at spwillis99@aol.com
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