Workshopping the Workshop

I like to think of workshopping as a giant dart board you see in those grimy bars all of the time. Get drunk and do a half-assed effort, and you'll miss it completely. Have some skills and your head screw on right and you'll probably slam it into the bull's eye, if not, close enough. Though there are many there who are inexperienced and obviously miss the targets, but with enough practice, the merits that will come later will be rewarding. 


Oh noes. I hope I didn't lose you there. Here: have a photo of a bullseye. 

Oh, not that Bullseye! Close enough. 


I think subject matter comes a long way into holding a reader's interest. An essay about the history of Barbie might generate the interest of females, but its a bit more questionable for males. Unless it's done right in a very interesting matter that could very well appeal to both genders. I think, personally, that in writing, you've got to keep it always interesting, if a scene is needed, insert it; if dialogue can be used without dominating the work, go ahead. I've come to realize that I myself late in this semester specialize in the narrative format. I always felt that my purposes come into the light whenever I insert a story within my work and only recently has that been confirmed rather than just me going straight to the point. But that's always been the fiction writer in me. 


This is my first semester at FSU and never had I ever done a workshop. I'm also taking a poetry class and here, we experiment with the whole workshopping process: we do the standard, in which small groups of three are dispersed in class; the "speed dating" method, wherein one person stays in place while others swap into the next seat, which is a very quick and utilitarian method, and as of the moment, we're doing anonymous whole class workshops, where the whole class writes critiques on poems distributed for the day. 


Nonfiction class has been rather disappointing, mostly because we've only done one "successful" workshop in which my essay ended up being a B (to my dissatisfaction, I genuinely liked it). During the Travelogue unit, I was at a complete loss for words and because we didn't do a workshop for it, I had to just go with the only location I really knew about in Tallahassee and its probably the least liked of everything I've written this semester.  But I being the eternal optimist that I am, am starting to quickly pick up on things. I've been able to voice my opinions when I read someone's work. I need to find the negatives and turn them into positives and expand upon the positive. Hurting someone's feelings is never the right thing to do, and luckily, I haven't come across those people yet who just like to flame and rip apart the work others have tried so hard on and have actually accepted their precious work in the hands of others only to be let down. I believe I was too soft during the beginning of the semester, but I think now as we finish the month of November, I've grown a firmer hand, because what's improvement without the critique. 


So I'll just say the same for this workshop for our class. It could have a lot more potential if done more often, we could have hit a stride with it, and maybe there's still enough time for it to be salvaged, but hey, I guess not all dartboards are easy enough to hit, right?