Workshops can be emotionally draining.

Workshops can be amazing. But their success depend on their structure and the people leading them.

Problematic rule: You are not allowed to speak until it's over.

• It's like people are talking about you in another room and don't realize that you can hear them.

Most panelists are older, while the fellows are younger, so there is a huge gap between the qualities of their works. So the panelists doing the critique will mostly see the negative.

Panelists tend to go with the flow and avoid contradicting each other.

Since fellows are being attacked, their natural response would be to be defensive of their work.

New structure of workshop: The asking

• You receive someone's work.
• You read it.
• Come to class with your notes prepared.
• But the author is the only person to direct the conversation.
• The author will come prepared with a set of questions and the panel and fellows are only allowed to speak on those questions.
  • This addresses a problem in traditional workshops where the author needs help on a specific problem but raising this on the last five minutes is useless because people will not be able to respond to it because there is no time to think about it and offer an answer

The traditional structure is not mentally healthy.

Focus on what you are good at. Lean on it. And your writing will eventually be better.

An MFA is a pressure cooker.

A motivation for getting an MFA is to be a better writer and to extend your time for making career decisions.

References

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS: Are They Worth It? Directed by Writer’s Digest, 2022. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebYfWpqhGZE.