ENGL389 Topics in Writing: YA Writing Workshop
Assignments: workshopping
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Overview
Workshopping is an important part of the creative process for writers. Folks who write either professionally or personally are often a part of a writing group--folks who read the writing of other members of the group, respect it, take it seriously, and react as readers interested in helping the writer revise their work into a better place. Not all feedback from a workshop makes it into a writer's revision--workshops are not like teacher comments on an essay for a class. Readers are equals. They don't have or need any particular expertise. And so what one reader wants to see another may not--that can make for an interesting but sometimes, also, truth be told, some frustration. The job of the writer is to think about what they were trying to do in their writing and then think about how readers understood the piece and consider what and how that information will affect their work. To conduct a civil, thoughtful, workshop, certain things have to happen. I outline those below
Details
Guidelines for Giving Feedback for our Final Project Writing Group
Consider the characteristics of YA we’ve discussed:
Also, consider what we’ve been talking about in terms of craft:
Workshopping is an important part of the creative process for writers. Folks who write either professionally or personally are often a part of a writing group--folks who read the writing of other members of the group, respect it, take it seriously, and react as readers interested in helping the writer revise their work into a better place. Not all feedback from a workshop makes it into a writer's revision--workshops are not like teacher comments on an essay for a class. Readers are equals. They don't have or need any particular expertise. And so what one reader wants to see another may not--that can make for an interesting but sometimes, also, truth be told, some frustration. The job of the writer is to think about what they were trying to do in their writing and then think about how readers understood the piece and consider what and how that information will affect their work. To conduct a civil, thoughtful, workshop, certain things have to happen. I outline those below
Details
Guidelines for Giving Feedback for our Final Project Writing Group
Consider the characteristics of YA we’ve discussed:
- A relationship to authority—often resistant
- Typically first person narration or close third (we only know what the narrator of the story is telling us)
- A coming of age story—the character goes from childhood to a kind of adulthood over the course othe story.
- Important firsts: the character or characters experience many things for the first time.
- The text asks a reader to consider a more adult theme in the narrative—training for more adult texts later
- The text might ask the reader to read a more challenging text in terms of structure, style, and language as a way to train them to read more sophisticated texts later on.
Also, consider what we’ve been talking about in terms of craft:
- Setting (world building)
- Character description (physical, emotional, etc)
- Narrative arc (plot)
- Beginnings, middles, ends
- The climactic moment and the resolution
- Dialogue (is it doing something or is it just talk for the sake of talk)
- Have your text read to be given to your classmates on the day indicated on the syllabus.
- In-class, we'll establish a reading schedule for the remaining classes.
- Folks should respond to whatever is being workshopped as a reader first. You might be reading in a genre that you are not that familiar with and may not feel like an expert at. That's OK. Others in the class will step up during weeks when a genre they are experts at is on the table. But all writers need to think of all their readers, even inexpert ones, so everybody's voice counts. Further, we have some general guidelines for what YA looks like. Use that to help you guide your feedback.
- Bring two copies of your short letter to the workshop. Expect to turn one of those letters in to me and to give the other to the author along with the marked up text. I do not need a copy of the text with your in-text comments. I just want the short letter to the writer.
- Be prepared to contribute to a lively conversation about a writer's text during the in-class workshop. Please do not feel that because you've written your comments out that you are exempt from contributing to the discussion. Equally, it's not appropriate for any one student to monopolize an entire discussion. Workshop should be a discussion.