Writing Workshops

This month, I have been teaching a workshop on beginnings through an on-line chapter of the RWA. I teach workshops from time to time, usually at www.savvyauthors.com (in fact, I'm teaching Beginnings there in July, and a Scifi/Fantasy World Building workshop early next year), and I find I quite enjoy it. The young writers who take my workshops are usually more talented than they think, and they are taking fate in hand by learning and practicing their craft. One of the nice things about workshops (or at least the ones I teach), is that I provide opportunities to receive feedback. When it comes down to it, there are hundreds of perfectly good books on writing out there, and I'm not going to add significantly to that — but reading books on writing doesn't necessarily help you figure out which bits of advice apply to you. Only feedback can do that. As I've said before, if you're serious about being a writer, sooner or later you have to get up the nerve to show your work to others, and find a way to use what they have to say about it. A workshop is only one of many possible choices, but they can be good tools for focusing energy and creativity.