« monday's lament | Main | Valentine's Day »

Tue | February 06, 2007

Writing Workshop

It would be nice if writing class were like art studio. In art class you draw, and the teacher goes around, looks at what you've done, and comments. He could even get in there and show you how the lines could be different. Put a little here. You watch him and you start to see the difference. And then you draw some more. The nude model shifts and you draw again. It's all charcoal on a giant newsprint tablet. You keep the tablet but it's all for practice. You do a bigger project at home for homework. With more detail, more effort on a single subject.

Writing Workshop is like, you are immediately expected to produce a sizeable project, even in a beginner class. You bring it in- if it even exists it's a miracle- and then you get a humongous pile of critique all at once. You don't know what to do next, you feel overwhelmed, there is no sequence, there is just a pile of critique. You never touch it again, or if you do, you try to do too much at once, and everything falls apart. Then in several weeks it's your turn to go through the same thing again. You wonder why you can never finish anything.

« Previous | Posted by Lily in envies | on February 6, 2007 03:08 PM | Next »