Workshops of Creativity!

Willing to hear the voices of others.
Others taking time to read your works.
Ready to make changes.
Key points drawn to attention to help the creativity run easier.
Students working together.
Hoping to improve your grades with the help of your classmates.

Open minded to hear different opinions.
Positive reinforcements towards additional creative ideas.
Super happy to get help from fellow classmates.

Workshop Winning?

My first real experience with workshops was traumatizing to say the least. It was my first semester at Florida State University and my anxiety was already at an all time high as I entered my Poetic Technique class. Unaware of what was in store for me I was faced with a pow-wow style class room and immediently thrown to the wolves as my (terrible) writing was shared with the class. The workshops that took place in this 'circle of trust' were painful and of little help to my 'poetic future'. Just when I thought I had finally written a decent poem the class would rip it to shreds and instead of offering helpful feedback I would be lectured by fellow class mates. I had thought that by the end of the class maybe the workshops would have helped me understand what readers might have to say about my work and perhaps I would discover new ways in which I could structure my writing or how I could gear it towards certain audiences but in the end all I had gained was the realization that poetry was not for me. I do believe that workshops can be extremely beneficial when given enough time and respect. It can make all the difference in one's writing to hear the opinions and feedback from readers before submitting a final draft. Often times simple details can be overlooked by the writer which might be critical to the reader, workshops are a great time for questions to be asked.  I also believe that the professor's role is crutial, instead of lecturing a student about his/her work, offering simple suggestions can be a great help whether it be a grammatical error or an undeveloped thought, pushing the student to dig deeper or pay closer attention to detail can be extremely beneficial.

In my experience, workshopping can be really great or a total waste of time. I like workshops when they help me expand my writing and give me another pair of eyes for a different perspective. However, I dislike workshop because its hard to fit an effective workshop into a class because students feel rushed to be sure they can get to everyone in their group.
I prefer to use the Writing Center where I can sit with someone and talk about what I've got going on and work together to form ideas. Otherwise, I end up with a couple scribbled notes and no clear idea of what the person was trying to tell me.

workshops :) or :/

For me workshops are like school sometimes I like it, and other times I do not. There are several reasons I am back and forth between fully committing to a love or hate relationship with workshops. The main reason I like workshops is because, they give me as a writer another set of eyes. The main reason I dislike workshops is because, legitimate full functioning workshops do not always take place in class.

I have to admit even though; some of my peers probably just skim through my work cause they really could care less. If he or she finds one misspelled word or sentence fragment in the end it bettered my paper. I am awful with over looking minor details as those so this is when work shopping comes in handy. I feel I benefit the most when I get comments on my writing style, or things my reader enjoyed. Workshops help me realize my strengths and weaknesses in writing. Although, it sucks to see the paper I worked so hard to create marked up and down with pen. Obviously those corrections/inputs are a positive thing to be brought to my attention.

Unfortunately, these out comes are only possible with a full functioning workshop. What I mean by this is the student reading your has to care enough to actually read it. Trust me I have been the problem before like many of my classmates. Maybe they had a bad morning, something more important is weighing on their mind, or honestly they just might be bored out of their mind to really give a person good criticism. Criticism is another reason I am kind of iffy about workshops. There has been plenty of times I thought a paper just blew, but who am I to tell someone that. To be perfectly honest I just do not have guts to rain all over someone’s parade. This is a major negative in peer editing because, there are plenty of people out there like me, or even worse. There is a great possibility a student reviewed my paper and thought this paper is good enough to wipe my butt. Yet, all they did was fixed a couple of misspelled words, tossed in some commas, and drew a smiley face at the top. This is why I think workshops can be a waste of time.

This concludes why I feel workshops are something I participate in when needed, but I do not take to seriously.

I like workshops

What a workshop is for me is the perspective of someone else who, lets be honest, doesn't care about my feelings. I'm cool with that, that's what I like. When I write an essay that looks great to me and I come to find out that I screwed up at the most fundamental level and a peer tells me my work is kind of shitty, I'm happy to go back and turn my shit into gold. I never had a real workshop experience until the first paper we did for this class. My vignettes piece was intense and I put a lot of work into it, I thought it was gold. Turns out, it was gold with a little shit on it. When I did the peer edit in class, i came away absolutely thrilled that I had a tool to scrape the shit off of it and let the pure gold shine through. People could see my thoughts for what they were. Especially within the genre our class write in, clarity is usually priority number one to help the reader understand us.

In conclusion, I like workshops.

Workshopping...

This class has been such a learning experience for me. I have struggled writing the papers this semester, tried to give them my best, tried to re-write the same papers over and over hoping that with each draft I would discover a different perspective to explore to make it better. The first paper concerned me because and I wasn't pleased with my grade and as a Creative Writing major, I need to perform well in this technique course in order to get into one of the advanced workshops . I thought that was it. If no one wants to read what I have to say then what am I doing this for. I don't even want to pursue writing as a career. I think that the reality of this did not sink in until I started asking myself if I really thought of myself as a professor writer. Either way, I am pursuing this degree with everything I've got. I have loved to write since I could pick up pen to paper and I'm not going to discredit myself now by calling it quits.

I have spoken to the professor numerous times after class because I know that writing isn't just a one time deal. You workshop, revise, brainstorm all over again, and you try new things. Without others input, you'd be stuck on a Ferris wheel, going round and round only in the direction for which you see fit at the time. I do not think that the workshops we did in class were very beneficial because only 2 or 3 peers looked at your paper and wrote minor comments. I think that we weren't really aiming to improve everyone else's writing because we were so concerned with our own, at least I know I was. Because the topics we were given were so broad, everyone had their own interpretation of what was expected as well as in what ways to be approaching their individual papers. I thought what helped me the most was reading others essays because it allowed me to see so many different writing styles and techniques that I could use in my own writing. But with only usually the first draft being work shopped it made it harder for some people to really improve because they didn't have anyone see how the paper changed.

That's why I thought it was so important for me to reach out to Mrs. Skinner. I knew that as long as I kept writing, that she would keep pushing me. She may have sent me in all different directions but she made me think outside of the box. She is part of the reason I still have it in me to write about my personal life. Because I have been through so much and feel as if my story should be heard, nonfiction is really what I know best. I know writing about myself will help me grow, explore, mature, and improve through revision and reflection. This memoir piece coming up is a bit scary for me but I know I'll get through it. I hope that the revision process hasn't interfered with anyone's writing negatively, no matter how much time it takes to go back and fix it up, you're learning. Although it's time consuming revising and transforming my writing, I know its necessary because there is always room for improvement.

Happy writing to everyone! Try to finish out the semester strong :)

Workshopping

Workshopping:

The process of workshops are beneficial. It provides opportunity for feedback from not one but multiple sources. During the beginning of the semester I was unsure and skeptical of our workshop days .. until we had our first one (not to mention the double absence we get for not attending). The process of exchanging my paper with another student or students who, like myself, seek opinions from peers their own age provided comfort. The workshop days make me willing to share my work with someone else who can provide valuable feedback that is put to use to enhance my work - not just anyone, but someone who is in the same position as myself.

Also, I enjoy our workshop days because I am able to read the work of other students before they turn their final piece in. In courses I have taken in the past I have been unable to read the work of classmates because the process of exchanging was unavailable, unless requested ... and who randomly requests to read your work, right? It also allows you to see the imigination and writing styles of others.

Workshopping is a very valuable and helpful opportunity that you have provided us with.

Work Shopping Work Shop

Work shopping is not my favourite thing to do. But, I can recognise and appreciate the need for it. One of the things I hate about work shopping is the need for positive feedback. Positive feedback generally includes “Oh, I liked what you did with (insert random part here)” when really the person just found a random metaphor to make you feel better. The problem with work shopping is no one really knows to work shop. We all just float around the paper, look for typos, things we didn’t quite understand, etc. One of the main problems is people never really seem to care what they are reading. But you can't really make people want to read your paper about that time you and your Aunt Barb made cookies and that's when you realised you wanted to be a chef, after they've just read how three other people wanted to become astrophysicists.

I find that work shopping really goes well when the class does it in a group. Like, everyone does the same paper. That generally doesn’t work when you have larger pieces. For larger pieces I find it works best if instead of in class work shopping, you do at home and then discuss in class. 

I do like the feedback I get on my papers. I like the negative more than the positive because that helps me write a better paper. Don’t get me wrong, positive feedback is good, too, but it doesn’t really help you do much to better your work. I think when a lot of people read or paper, instead of one or two you end up really being able to see the problems with your paper.