Monday Night Writing Workshop
“This diverse group of women has bonded way beyond what I would ever have imagined. Age, in a range from twenty-three to seventy-six or so, doesn’t matter at all. I depend on each one to critique my writing honestly — telling me where I need to expand the writing, where I need to cut it, where it needs clarification – all in a safe environment. I appreciate the hard work they devote to my writing progress.” - Liz
Since March 2019 I have been leading a rigorous and collaborative MFA-style writing workshop that meets every other Monday evening from 6:30-8:30pm ET. During these sessions we workshop each others fiction and nonfiction work and also provide support and accountability. So much of what makes this workshop vital is hard to capture unless you’re a part of it, but I’ll try.
We begin with a check in and talk about what we’re reading and what’s inspiring us -- sometimes it’s a TV show or a song; sometimes it’s a long walk one of us took where we saw a wild pack of foxes. We discuss what we are working on.
Once we get to know each other and our goals a little better, we ask big questions of each other, like, “I am working on a novel and interested in doing NaNoWriMo – have any of you done that and was it helpful?” … Or “I am writing about my family and I am scared to show my work to them. Have you guys ever dealt with that and how did you solve it?” …. or “I am hitting a period of writers block. Any suggestions?” It’s a time to be resources for each other. We learn a lot from each other. And we cheer each other on.
Then we get down to the workshop portion of the evening. Typically one or two of us workshop per session. That means we sign up ahead of time and send our work to the group one week ahead of time so we all have the chance to read the work carefully and give it the attention it deserves.
For those of you who haven’t participated in a typical MFA-style workshop yet, that’s OK. We go over guidelines and expectations and I explain that learning how to workshop well is a skill in and of itself and that this group will be slowly getting better at that skill throughout our time together. Each piece of work – a 20 page maximum, usually – gets a half an hour of our time. If there’s time left over we do some prompt based writing.
Each group is a little bit different. And the group will change over time, as people work on different projects, experiment with different genres or as new people join.
When you work with the same group of writers – through different seasons of life, through rough drafts and final revisions, through goal setting and submitting, setbacks and celebrations – you learn how to become a more dedicated writer as well as how to exist in and support a literary community.
In this group you will learn how to support other writers as they grow, you will learn how to best give and receive feedback on your work and the work of others, and you will gain workshop skills that will enable you to contribute your voice to any classroom setting.
This workshop is open to female-identifying writers who are experienced writers of fiction or nonfiction. I ask for a 6 month commitment, which sounds like a lot but goes by in a flash. Most members stay for years. If you haven’t worked with me before I’ll ask for a sample of your writing to determine if you might be a good fit for the workshop. This is not about being a writer who is “good enough” for this group – it is simply to see if I think that I and the rest of the writers would be good readers for your work.
At the moment this workshop is conducted via Zoom, so you can join from anywhere.
Fill out the contact form to see if there is availability.