Come Together, Right Now...

I submitted a piece of short fiction last Monday to be critiqued in my workshop class for that Wednesday.  I must admit, I was wary of the experience with this group of people.  There had only been one workshop day before mine.  Maybe it was first day jitters, but it seemed like only positive comments were making their way into conversation, when certainly there were other opinions than just the ones being shared.

The piece I submitted was an old idea that never flourished into reality, but the idea was solid and could be hammered out into a medium-length short story (you must know that medium is the shortest I write).  It wasn't what I was going to submit when I first volunteered to go on Wednesday, but it should have been easy enough to finish if I worked diligently enough.  I didn't.  I let a full week go by without truly working on the idea, so I rushed to finish it by my deadline.  I felt bad that I had to summarize the ending, but late in the game I had no other choice.  It turned out a disaster.  I knew it was crap as I was writing it, but I didn't have the time to flesh it out.  I decided, though, that this may work out to my advantage.  I used this writing fiasco as a test, to see whether or not the class was critiquing to their full ability.  It turned out better than I hoped for.  The class did bring up the end as a concern, though certainly not to the extent I thought they would.  Between the one page written critiques, which we all must do for each other, and this discussion, all the concerns I had were addressed and then some.  It gives me hope for the next 15 weeks of class.

Certainly, the experience is different from my writing workshop at Columbus State.  It was a unique dynamic that naturally worked to bring about deeper debate and criticism.  Since this class is longer, I do think that given time, my current peers could come close to this atmosphere of comfort.  There is a variety in our styles of writing.

If you have never experience a workshop for yourself, and you write, either as a hobby or perhaps more serious, you need to try it.  Find a group, or a class.  Put your work in front of others who share a similar passion for written word.  I guarantee you will come out a better writer.  The comments and concerns are invaluable in fine-tuning your work and stimulating ideas to further it.  The same goes for all artistic mediums.  Even if you are just reading, find a discussion group to talk about it with.  Even more practical mediums like science and medicine, politics, etc. have similar support groups to encourage self-growth and the overall growth of ideas.  Peer groups are great experiences when like-minded people come together to share their thoughts and ideas for each other.

Get involved, bloggers and readers.  Share your passion with the world, and you might just be surprised at the amount of world that shares your passion.