Tried & True Rules for a Superlative Writing Group
Get ready for our Take5 Workshop-- or your own!
Many, if not most, writers participate in a writing group of some kind. And stories are legion of groups that dissolved in tears or recrimination over thoughtless, cruel, or arrogant remarks that have no place in a well-run workshop. So, especially if you’re launching a new group that plans to workshop pieces, it’s a good idea to review practices and policies that help other workshops prosper and survive.
Hello Loreates!
Despite the miserable state of our so-called union, I have good news for the MFA Lore community. Last week at the very first meeting of our Take 5 subscribers, we decided to make this monthly premium session a writing workshop!
I’m thrilled with this group decision because the writing workshop is central to the MFA experience and, while my MFA Core posts mimic lectures, it’s high time we added the benefits of a good real-time workshop.
Every month we’ll focus on one participant’s submission of 5 pages alongside a parallel selection of published work that deals with similar craft issues. Our goal is developmental, not commercial. Our purpose is to provide constructive, helpful, honest feedback that stresses both the literary strengths and opportunities for improvement in each work.
For more about the Take 5 program for premium subscribers, look HERE.
As you might imagine, a good writing workshop requires careful planning and ground rules. When I began to lay out the blueprint for our Take 5 workshop, I thought it might be worth sharing more broadly.
Many, if not most, writers participate in a writing group of some kind. And stories are legion of groups that dissolved in tears or recrimination over thoughtless, cruel, or arrogant remarks that have no place in a well-run workshop. So, especially if you’re launching a new group that plans to workshop pieces, it’s a good idea to review practices and policies that help other workshops prosper and survive.
Hence, today’s post.elenaelen
SAVE THESE DATES!
Monday, February 9 at 10am PT/ 2pm ET
Writers In The World, Live: Create to Survive
Please join WITW’s free Substack Live MFA faculty reunion, as Elena Georgiou , Sherri L. Smith and Aimee Liu discuss the essential role of creativity as an engine for solace, hope, and resilience in today’s tormented world. Elena Georgiou is the award-winning poet and fiction writer who formerly directed Goddard’s MFA in Creative Writing Program and currently teaches in the PhD program at the Rubenstein School at the University of Vermont. Sherri L. Smith is an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels for young adults and kids, and a faculty member of Hamline University’s MFA in Children’s Writing.
Tuesday, February 10 at 11am PT/ 2pm ET
Well Published, Live: Publication via Contests
Tune in to MFA Lore’s free Well Published! Substack Live on Tuesday, when I’ll be chatting with Toni Ann Johnson , who’s won FOUR writing contests that led to publication of her books. Her next is a story collection, But Where’s Home, to be released this month by Screen Door Press, an imprint of The University Press of Kentucky. Join us to find out how she did it!
Saturday, February 14 at 10am PT/ 1pm ET
Loreate Zoom for Paid Subscribers
All paid MFA Lore subscribers are welcome for this Valentine’s Day special as we discuss the role of LOVE in our writing life. Please RSVP in the chat using this link:
Tips from a Writing Workshop Veteran
I formed my first writing workshop around 1990. The late great Cai Emmons and I had taken a UCLA prose writing class with the aging Leonardo Bercovici, who simply disappeared one day, leaving the class to fend for ourselves. Cai and I tapped the fellow students whose work we respected the most, and started our own workshop. I’ve been in workshops ever since.
Not all writing groups are workshops, and not all workshops follow the same format. But most of the workshops I’ve joined or led have followed what’s called The Iowa Model , after the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. These include the workshops I attended as an MFA student at Bennington and those I led over 15 years as a Goddard MFA advisor, as well as the women writers’ workshop I’ve attended almost every month for the past dozen years.
I’ve also witnessed workshops that went sideways — and the emotional toll that can take on participants. I’ve comforted students who were personally savaged by peers who lost the distinction between the author and the work. I’ve reassured colleagues whose work was so badly misunderstood in workshop that they felt unmoored for months afterward. And I’ve collected tips and guidelines to prevent such mishaps in the workshops I lead.
Here, then, are those tips and guidelines. They’re not carved in stone. Every group has its own particular goals and priorities. But IMHO, mutual courtesy, respect, and generosity are absolutely fundamental. The suggestions below are meant to safeguard those basic elements of compassion while also encouraging honest, beneficial feedback.
I hope this step-by-step guide will help your workshop grow and last!
