Interested in Doing an Online Writing Workshop?

[pleasant_disorder]

I'd have to work out the details for how we'd do this, but for those of you that don't know, I'll explain what a writing workshop is:

Basically, it's a group of writers that gets together and gives criticism on a person's piece. Workshops are intensely important for any serious writer because it helps you gauge an audience's reaction to the piece, whether it's a poem, fiction, or creative non-fiction. For instance, if several people express that there is a problem with your voice's continuity (i.e. the voice sounds younger in some parts, older in another or the voice sounds more intellectual in certain areas than others), then you might want to look at your voice and see if you can strengthen it.

Some ground rules:

All criticisms are welcome. But please understand: praising a person's piece will make them feel good and warm inside, but it won't help them in the progression of working on their story. You don't want to shoot someone down, but you want them to also take something away from their critique.

Criticism isn't personal. If someone tells you that the piece is cliche and you need to start from the ground up, don't take it personal. First of all, this is an opinion based deal, and an opinions vary. So if you don't agree with what someone says, don't take their advice.

I just wanted to gauge some reaction from people before I put work into this idea. I'll also be posting this in the writer's group and fan-fiction/prose thread.

[My_Head_Is_In_The_Stars]

I think it will be cool Writing is FUM (and yes, with an 'M')

I'm here if you want any help c(:

[Miss Manipulation]

I'm very interested in this although I've never participated in any sort of workshop before. Would we have to prepare a written piece beforehand? That's really the only question I have aside from how we'll do this, which you seem to still be figuring out. Maybe we could all gather on a program like AIM, meebo, or MSN? Or we could create some sort of private page somewhere and speak with each other there?

[pleasant_disorder]

I was thinking AIM group chat would work (that's right! blow the dust of your AIMs folks!)

You would be given a date to give your story out to the group, two weeks before your workshop. I figure we can do someone every two weeks, that way everyone should have enough time to read the piece. The workshop will work like this: The first person will pass out their story (probably via facebook or messaging on the board), two weeks later we'll critique it (however we decide to go about that), and on that same day, the next person will hand out their story or poem and two weeks later we'll critique that person.

I figure we can keep it to two people a month for now. Also, the date of the critique can be pushed up. If you're doing a short poem, we shouldn't have to wait two weeks to critique it.

[Miss Manipulation]

Hide yo MSNs and hide yo Skypes cause AIM is--I'm just going to stop before I say something so utterly stupid I am never viewed as intelligent ever again (not that I am, anyways).

I see. I like that idea a lot and I think it could work so long as the people who don't have AIM and whatnot are willing to download it. If not, before I mentioned meebo. It's a browser based messaging program. Create a meebo account, create a normal AIM/AOL email account and log into it through meebo. It takes 10 minutes, really.

[pleasant_disorder]

That sounds like an excellent idea! We'll see how many people I can get rounded up for this. I know I have you two. If I can get three more people to get in on it, then we'll have ourselves a good little group.