Would anyone be interested in a workshop?

[kassimir funk]

I was thinking...(watch out everybody)

I'd like to know how many of you would be interested in getting a little writing workshop going. I was thinking that we could split up into groups of four, if there's enough people.

You could e-mail your work to the other three in your group, have them e-mail their stuff to you as well. The workshop would last 2-4 weeks. During that time we could each have a thread on the forum(group 1, group 2 etc..) to share our opinions and advice with the others in the group. This would be in conjunction with more in-depth e-mail critiques. The reason for the posting threads would be to allow member A and member B to discuss member C's work.

I would like to point out that, should this become a reality, a certain amount of common decency will have to excercized on everyone's part. It is my experience that, when in a workshop, many times things can get ugly. Especially when some writer's are noticably superior or inferior, whichever the case. Point is... BE NICE. BE HELPFUL.

I can't think of any way, off hand, to match writer's of relatively equal skill into the same group being that we are mostly unfamiliar with each other's work. Perhaps the MODERATORS could help in this regard.

Anyhow, I thought I'd throw that idea out there.

Lemme know if the idea appeals to you or if you have ANY ideas or comments to offer.

Follow me to the city of groove,
Kassimir Funk

[Erebus]

Personally, I think Del Ray are far better equiped than us here to do these types of workshops. There, you can upload stuff and have it commented on almost immediately. Just an idea, but I think they have some success through there.
http://delrey.onlinewritingworkshop.com/


[This message has been edited by erebus (edited April 04, 2002).]

[kassimir funk]

I am very familiar with Del Rey's workshop. Here's my problem with it.

Let's say you give 12 reviews.

1. For every 3 reviews you give you're lucky to get 1 back. That's 4 reviews.

2. Out of those four three of them are going to be completely useless. i.e. "Wow, I really liked it." or "I thought it was good but it needed some more work" or "It was ok, but it just isn't my thing"

hardly constructive reviews.

3. you are limited to three chapter submissions making it hard to get a picture of what's going on in the story

"Personally, I think Del Ray are far better equiped than us here to do these types of workshops"

I can certainly understand and appreciate that. What I wanted to do would not require any time or effort on your(moderators) part other than keeping the posts free of overly offensive messages. It would largely be us(particpants) doing all the work while utilizing your posting board as a means of communication and interaction. This would allow us to do the critiques at our own pace.

Another advantage that I thought of was for the POD authors. This may give them a chance to get some reviews on their work. Good reviews = sales = money in your pockets.

Sincerely,
Kassimir Funk

[This message has been edited by kassimir funk (edited April 04, 2002).]

[Alucard]

Sounds cool to me. If it goes through, count me in.

[kassimir funk]

Lets get a show of hands. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

<Kassimir raises hand>

<spots Alucard raising his hand>

people who are in:
1. Kassimir Funk
2. Alucard
3. Nathan Carter
4. estranghero
5. Gabador
6. Enazwo
7. Lawson
8. Asraloth

(I'll update the list as we go on, until we have at least 4 people)

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[Nathan Carter]

I'm game

[estranghero]

I'm sometimes busy (coz I usually check this site out when I'm at work-- shhh!) so I may not be able to contribute most of the time but I'm all for supporting this. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[kassimir funk]

Estrang,

Hopefully, you'll have enough time to get to work on this. I was thinking about 2-4 weeks. Would that work for ya?

Should I put ya on the list?

Da Funk

[estranghero]

That's fine. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

My problem sometimes is that I can't bring home the stories on sffworld and since I don't have the time to read the stories at work, I can't read 'em at all.

But given 2-3 weeks and having a goal to read and critique 'em, that could work.

Hell, I'm game.

(And if I'm feeling generous, I'll ask my SO to help me. She just took her lit classes on critical thinking. BWAHAHAHA!!!)

[kassimir funk]

That's a sport!

Sign up now kids... spots are going fast!