How to lead
A Creative Writing Group
Guidelines for a successful writing group
Sharing buttons:
a couple of guidelines for writing
groups okay so if you I assumed that
this light turns on this is new from
last year we stood up here like like
Apes Bing banging stones against it for
a while and couldn't figure it out I
might have my IV guy come and try and
figure it out so eventually maybe we'll
have a light up here so until then I
won't write in the shadow so if you are
a workshop urn giving advice right
here's a few points to give you try to
be descriptive of your emotions not
prescriptive
right okay try to be descriptive what
this means is for particularly when
you're newer at this saying I was bored
completely valid there's never a time
when I'm was bored is not a valid
response to something you were bored by
saying you should add a fight scene can
be really bad advice sometimes it can be
good advice if you really know the
person and know the thing and you know
the sub-genre and what the writers
trying to do you could be like I feel
like a fight right here would really you
know snap things together but it can be
bad advice
I was bored can never be bad at bad
advice right it's always valid your
response to the story always it's now
the reader that the the workshop II does
not need to take that they can
understand well maybe you're supposed to
be bored or maybe this book isn't
connecting within clicking with you and
it's okay because someone else that's
their favorite scene there are lots of
reasons to not take that advice but that
response is always valid saying I'm
confused always valid doesn't matter
like if you miss something it's it's
it's okay to miss things the read it
writer needs to know if you've missed
stuff they may not have made it clear
maybe you just missed it maybe your kids
were crying or maybe your roommates were
doing a raid or whatever it is that
people do and you know they're like
there's like a Pokemon that everyone
needs to catch and you're trying to read
while they're all catching their Pokemon
and like you missed it and nothing needs
a change but it's not invalid that you
were confused let them know you're
confused be descriptive rather than
prescriptive this comes from you know
it's this great thing Hollywood does I
heard about and I loved it ever since
they do this test audience thing for a
bunch of sitcoms and they will grid an
audience together show them the sitcoms
and then afterward ask them questions
and the questions are all about the
advertisements because it's not really a
test audience for the sitcoms they use
the same like three test sitcoms that
never expected to be aired they want to
get your reaction to the ads and they
don't want to tell you that up front
because they want to get your natural
reaction that's what the RIT writer
needs from you they need your natural
reaction as if you didn't know you were
going to be giving feedback on this just
reading it and giving them the feedback
so that they can be like oh that's what
I wanted or oh I was totally surprised
by that alright so if you're the
workshop ee
right if you're the workshop ii write it
down and don't change anything yet
that's what that says if you can't read
it mm-hmm my handwriting um somewhere
missus Sukup my second-grade teacher is
shaking her head because she trained a
best-selling author and she warned him
his handwriting was bad and she was not
able to save him if you're the workshop
you write it down but don't change
anything yet give it some time give it
some space listen to the feedback and
try to understand right try to get where
they're coming from and understand if
that's a reaction you want sometimes you
want people to be a little confused
sometimes you want them to want
something they haven't gotten yet
because you're going to give it to them
in a few chapters maybe you're wrong
maybe they're having a you've done
something wrong they're having complete
wrong reaction they're all laughing at
this thing that you thought was really
serious really important for you to know
but stay silent
unlike whatever it is over there making
noise this is good advice particularly
when you're new don't say anything
pretend you are a fly on the wall and
that they're all sitting around having a
book club discussion of the book and
you're just writing stuff down prevent
yourself from defending yourself prevent
yourself from explaining if you defend
yourself it's just gonna make people
less likely to give you feedback in the
future if you explain it than it did
defeats your chance to explain it right
in the writing and have them get it and
you won't know if you are able to get
them to understand it through your
writing because you've already explained
it and painted them all right one more
thing for the workshop er be sure to say
what is good alright way we do why
workshop is we start and we make
everyone say what is working upfront so
the writer isn't accidentally change the
things that are working plus it's really
good for you to get told what is working
and that your writing doesn't suck
before everyone launches into telling
you how terrible your writing is right
so we do a few minutes of that and then
we transition to things that could use a
second look it's what we call it in my
writing group it's not things that are
broke it's just you know things that
they've read or felt things that they
want to highlight that you may want to
have a second look at stuff like that
all right
