The a la Carte Workshop

a new model for creative feedback

I’ve been questioning the format and purpose power structures of creative writing workshops for as long as I’ve been teaching them. I wish I could say I questioned them as a student, but those were the days of sitting there silently while people mispronounced your characters’ names and offered suggestions for turning your memoir into sci-fi.

Experience, plus recent essays like Beth Nguyen’s “Unsilencing the Writing Workshop,”* have convinced me that the classic mid-20th-century model is profoundly unhelpful for many students. But then what if, for other students, it’s the perfect thing? After all, when your work goes out into the world you don’t get to explain it. Or what if it’s the perfect thing one week, and the next week you just really want to get three specific big-picture questions answered about your poem? Or what if one student needs gentle encouragement and the next wants to be pounded into the sidewalk with criticism? What if one writer just really needs to hammer out the rules of their speculative universe with some friendly readers?

So here’s what I’ve been doing, the past few years, in writing workshops from MFA to beginner to Bread Loaf:

I’ve made an a la carte menu of all the elements I’ve seen in successful workshops, and I let students choose their own adventure.

Disclaimer: These are not my hairy arms.

The menu provides some structure, a road map for how the hour or two will go. It also invites the student to think critically about the kind of feedback they need and want. And most importantly, it gives them full control over the format.

(A note here: I know “menu” and “a la carte” are different things in much of the civilized world—but I’m American, and we use “entree” to mean “main course,” and we mostly just stab our food with pocket knives.)

Here’s what I give my students, along with our syllabus:

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The Menu

Obviously, doing ALL of these would result in a 12-hour marathon workshop. You’ll only have time for a few “courses.”

My default workshop mode is 1, 4, 6, 10, 14 (if there’s time), 15, 16. If you choose “default” in my workshop, this is what you’ll get (with 1, 15, and 16 taking very little time).

A few other combos that would work well:
4, 5, 7, 11, 12
4, 9
12
4, 8, 16

In just about all of these, there’s the option for the author to be an active participant, an occasional participant, or a silent note-taker. 

These do not have to come in numerical order, but some make more sense early and some later.

None of these is an essential element, but I do strongly suggest that you allow room for positive feedback and don’t opt only for constructive criticism.

1)    The author frames the pages

Examples:
How the pages came to be
Where they are in the process
How new these pages are
“This used be in third person, and I just put it in first.”
“For workshop, I omitted five pages in which we learn a lot more about the forest.”
“What I’m trying to do with this scene is explore Glen’s backstory but also keep the present stakes going.”

Notes:
Blanket apologies, though, are silly and a waste of time. We’ve all seen rough drafts before.

The workshop leader or class might take this opportunity to ask the author any clarifying questions (e.g., “Can you pronounce the town name for us?” “Is this part of something longer?”)

2)    Some or all of the work is read aloud

Examples:
The author reads an entire poem aloud
The instructor reads one page of a short story aloud
Students take turns reading paragraphs aloud
The author casts students in roles for reading a screenplay

Notes:
This can be especially useful for those focusing on language, those newer to writing, and those working on something meant to be read aloud (e.g., a play).

If there are words or names that might be difficult for some peers to pronounce, you might prepare readers with pronunciations, or choose your reader carefully.

3)   “Pointing”

This is when workshoppers offer phrases or details or moments that they remember from the piece, or ones that resonated with them, without offering commentary.

They might refer to the pages, or go by memory. Of course the implication is that these were things people liked, but they don’t have to be big things.

Examples:
“The forest floor looking like a web of veins.”
“His heart was a polished stone.”
“His yellow hat with the blue stain.”

4)    Workshoppers talk about what is working well, being as specific as possible

Examples:
“I love this description of mushrooms on page 5.”
“You got the physical details of place in there without stopping the story to describe the room.”
“I laughed so hard when…”
“The language is so richly textured. I was noticing the varied sentence structures on page 4…”
“I am fully invested in whether Glen finds this flute.”

5)    The author asks one big question of the group, and the group discusses at some length

Examples:
Is my balance of backstory and present story working?
Do you feel you know Glen deeply enough?
Does the diary thing work at all?
Am I getting the stakes across?
As a woman, do I pull off writing with a male voice?
Is the timeline of the investigation clear?
Are the rules of this world clear?

Note:
“Is this any good?” and “Should I keep going?” are not super useful or answerable questions.

6)    The workshop leader asks a clarifying question of the group, and the group discusses

Quite often, my question to the group will be about orientation or the timeline or the rules of this world; in other words, I’m making sure we’re all on the same page in our understanding of the story’s basics.

Examples:
“What do we understand about the rules of the flute goblins?”
“Let’s work together to chart out the timeline of this scene.”
“Let’s list everything we know about Glen, from these pages.”
“What is at stake for this character within this scene, and what’s at stake for him more broadly?”

Notes:
The author might be silent for this round, or might participate.

This can be especially useful for a more complicated piece, and if you choose to sit back and take notes, it can be a chance for you to see how well you’ve gotten your vision across. (We’ll likely ask you to confirm our reading, though.)

7)    The group asks NEUTRAL questions of the author

Examples:
“How do you see backstory and story present working together here?”
“How do you want us to feel about the flute goblins?”
“How do you see the use of Scottish dialect in this piece?”
“What do you want us to care about most in this scene?”
“Have you considered writing this in the 1^st person?”
“What would happen if you started with Glen finding the flute in the woods?”

Note:
“Why did you make the ending so abrupt and confusing?” is not a neutral question. “Tell us how you landed on your ending” is.

8)    Workshoppers offer ideas for further scenes and plot points (rather than ideas for revision)

Examples:
“You could give the milkmaid her own chapter! I’d love to know how she feels about Glen.”
“I’d hope to see some real mystery develop here. One of these goblins could show up dead.”
“You could make great use of Scandinavian mythology!”

Note:
This is obviously best when a project is in an early drafting stage.

9)    Free-for-all discussion; workshoppers may raise any issues on their mind

Examples:
“I know we were just talking about the setting, but can we talk about these verbs?”
“I have so many ideas for how you could expand this world.”
“I’m really lost on page 6.”
“I know everyone else is confused about how much spinach the goblins eat, but I loved that part.”

Note:
This can be fun but also chaotic, and the most vocal people tend to hold the floor. The writer might remain silent, or might pop in to respond to some things.

10) “Headlines”

Workshoppers give “headlines” for concerns they want to discuss; the workshop leader collects these, and calls on people for elaboration in an order that makes sense. These headlines should be topic headings, not value statements.

Examples:
“Character relations”
“Ending”
“Pacing”
“Dialogue”
“Believability”
“Goblin lore”

Notes:
“I was really confused by what this guy wanted” is a value statement. “Motivation” is a headline.

The writer might remain silent, or might pop in to respond to some things.

11) Workshoppers ask permission to offer suggestions

Examples:
“I have a suggestion about point of view. Would you like to hear it?”
“Would you be interested in hearing my ideas about the opening?”
“I have a concern about the character relations. Would you be open to hearing it?”

12) The author asks multiple questions of the workshop, leading the discussion

Examples:
“What did you all think of the opening?”
“What did you feel was at stake here?”
“Did the characters feel real?”

Note:
This might take up the bulk of workshop time, or this might happen just at the end, as the author has stray questions that need answering.

13) The page-by-page workshop

The group works through the piece one page at a time from beginning to end, addressing issues as they come up, almost entirely in order. For poetry, of course, this would be a line-by-line workshop.

Examples:
“This is an example of the clarity issues I was talking about on page 2.”
“Here we meet the father for the first time, and I’m not sure I get a clear picture of him.”
“You’re using the word ‘nonplussed’ here to mean its opposite. It actually means bothered.”
“This is my favorite part! I love that the goblins are so into flower arranging!”

14) Close editing

The instructor leads the class through a close editing of one paragraph of prose (weighing things word for word, the way one might in a poetry workshop).

Examples:

“So we’re looking at the line He mused upon the fact that he hadn’t exactly expected to find a Kmart so deep in the forest, and definitely not one that was so brightly lit with the illumination of fluorescent lights. We were talking about wordiness earlier, and I wonder if we have any candidates here for words to cut or ways to make this sentence more compact.”

“Our next line is There were so many things on the shelves. Jessica, I’m going to put you on the spot as the author. Can we brainstorm some of the objects Glen might notice? Let’s see if we can expand this sentence a little and get some specificity.”

Notes:
When I do this, I’ll actually bring up your paragraph on a screen and we’ll edit—but these are of course only suggested edits! This tends to work best when the author is an active participant, but even so we might end up with a group-think paragraph. You’re not obliged to keep any changes we make.

I always start by reading the paragraph in question aloud, and end by doing a before-and-after reading of the paragraph we’ve focused on. It’s fun, I promise!

15)   The author reenters the discussion at the end

The author summarizes what they’ve heard, asking stray questions, explaining things that people had wondered about. This is of course especially useful if the author has stayed quiet, but the summarizing can be useful in any context. The author might talk about ideas they’ve had during the workshop, or their plans for revision.

16) The workshop leader summarizes the feedback and gives suggestions for next steps

Alternatively, this might happen in a separate conference.

17) Something else

If there’s a way you want to be workshopped and it’s not on this list, let’s make it happen! Please talk to me about it ahead of class, though.

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*So much of the work and thinking of dismantling the traditional “silenced” workshop has been done by BIPOC and LGBTQ writers and instructors who have been ill-served by a classroom replication of societal silencing and sidelining. Matthew Salesses and Felicia Rose Chavez have written key books on the subject. Additionally, the American choreographer Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Theory has migrated into the writing world, to great effect; #7 and #11 are from her practice.

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I’d love your thoughts! Is there anything major that I’ve missed? Or do you just have any horrible workshop experiences you’d like to share?

For paid subscribers, I’ve put all of the above into a nicely-formatted, downloadable PDF below the paywall. Feel absolutely free to use or share this menu, but I’d love credit and/or blame, please.