< back to So You Want To Write What to Expect at the Workshops The format of both the Fiction and the Personal Narrative Workshop is one that has been well-tested over many years in locations all over the coutnry. Following short talks about craft, participants are given selected writing assignments. Once completed, sometimes in, sometimes out of class, we ask for them to be read aloud in small groups. Writers are encouraged to read at least one of their writing assignments to the entire group but no one is pressured to do so. The session lengths vary according to the venues where they are taught, usually two to three hours. No two workshops are ever the same. The structure of the workshop, the lecture/talks, and the exercises have evolved over time. Because the focus is on the participants’ writing (rather than 'expert advice' from the workshop leaders), each workshop is a reflection of those who take it. Criticism is never harsh or judgmental. It is geared to helping each writer improve what she/he has written, not what 'critics' in the class want them to be writing. To the extent that there are any rules, it is required only that writers attempt to help, and not bully, other writers. Writers sometimes ask if they can use the time they are alloted to read aloud to the group a piece that they have written previously, for instance, an excerpt from an autobiographical novel or memoir. We have found that this only works if the excerpt fits the length of the assignment--a one- page beginning, for example--and the subject matter of the assignment, i.e., a page of dialog or description. Writers are asked to hold to these two caveats for it is simply not fair to dominate the class. Many of the exercises are given in the book, So You Want to Write--as is far more information than can ever be delivered in a workshop situation--and sometimes participants finish the exercises before the workshop begins. All well and good, as long as the piece fits the length and the subject matter of the writing assignment. We all laugh a lot in the workshops. We, the 'teachers,' often learn a lot from the participants. We all take our meals together, talk about writing and our lives, and sometimes--as at the Omega Institute or the Rowe Conference Center--the food is great! None of us get a lot of sleep. But lots of writers take the time (and the risk of 'outing' their work) because they've come to a standstill in their writing life and need a boost, an injection of energy, contact with other writers, some cold hard truth, or some advice about how they might publish. Many participants have continued to share work on-line or in person with writers they've met in the workshop. Still others have gone on to publish their work with independent, university and mainstream presses. Some have called the workshop 'memoir bootcamp.' Thousands have joined us over the years. Upcoming weekend workshops:
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