Three alternatives to the Iowa writing workshop format

Liz Lerman

The fiction workshop is so pervasive in the writing world it’s been converted to a verb: workshopping. Although there’s numerous workshop variations and settings (academic, informal, living room writing groups—whatever), a fiction writing workshop usually operates something like this:

A writer distributes his or her story (or book chapter) to the rest of the group ahead of the next meeting. Each workshop member reads the story on their own, away from the group. Most groups require...