There’s a lot of talk on the internet right now about the writing workshop, so I thought I’d put in my two cents.
People are talking about what it means for someone else to tell you that your writing sucks (see here, here, and here). Well, this never happens in any of my graduate writing workshops. Even the ones I was in during high school, a time when people are notoriously mean to each other, no one ever told me or anyone else “your writing sucks.”
I know, I know, I’m taking these bloggers too literally, but still, I feel compelled to respond to the sentiment behind these posts: No one in my writing workshop is malicious. The parameters have been set — we’re not here to trash each other’s writing or each other as writers. We are here to nurture, to be honest, to be constructive. We are all reminded that we are all good writers — we are all in this program, so we must be good writers. No point in being mean.
Even with writers that I completely don’t identify with, writers whose work doesn’t resonate with me, I am still able to find SOMETHING of value. I have the same philosophy about humanity: every person has something of value to contribute to society, every life is worth leading and living (sorry for the big metaphor).
Writers that I don’t like but can still appreciate are ones who do something with structure that I am unable to do. People who experiment with form and switch narrative voice in the middle of the piece and use line breaks as intentional structural elements — these are people whose writing I can appreciate even if I don’t like their workshop submission.
So even if I think their writing “sucks,” I still have something to say, even if only “wow, I could never do that.”
Capiche?
