ARCHIVE FOR The Workshop

Writers often say that the workshop experience is crucial in developing their art. Creating a vibrant and productive workshop is not a matter of luck — there are things we can all do to be better workshop citizens. For this special edition of Sound Skeins, we asked a selection of the dedicated writers, authors, and instructors in our community what we should all be doing to ensure we become valuable, productive, and responsible members of any writing class

Only a week after its May 3rd publication, Pamela Wechsler’s first novel, Mission Hill, has garnered praise from Publisher’s Weekly, The Washington Post, Associated Press, and many other sources

Some call them writing workshops — I call them therapy sessions.

As a new instructor at GrubStreet, I thought I knew what to expect when I walked into my first "Jumpstart Your Writing" class this past January. We would discuss the setbacks students experience when it comes to writing, which would encompass everything from the misconceptions surrounding syntax to why they couldn't get their novel off the ground

Michelle Hoover, Instructor for Grub's Novel Incubator program, is a verified expert in the field of writerly etiquette. Here, she offers her best advice on workshop citizenship and shows us exactly how she keeps the Incubator classroom a supportive space for writers. 

It seems like a recipe for torture

Another entry in the monthly column, The Freelance Life, by Ethan Gilsdorf, about the trials, tribulations, triumphs—and tips to share—along the path to becoming a freelance writer.

Earlier this year, on the last day of one my writing workshops, I heard an interesting comment.

I was teaching a class on personal essays and op-eds, and on that final day, a student expressed this thought: “I think the essays we all wrote in this class were great, but they were kind of tame.”