Chrislande Dorcilus Response: Workshopping a Draft

[Sondra Perl]

#442

Workshopping A Draft: Response

My undergraduate degree is in Creative Qriting. As a result, I have taken my fair share of workshopping courses (poetry, fiction, and non-fiction) and if I am being honest, I hated all of them. After reading Chapter Six, I can finally pinpoint why. Most of my workshopping experience had been a battle of egos where young adults battled it out for the title of BEST WRITER. In one of my junior year poetry writing courses, I turned in a very short poem late. I knew that it might not have been the best and most respectful thing to do, but I was having a hard time finishing/coming up with material for this assignment. After participating in what I perceived was a nice round of workshopping—some of my classmates had great ideas of where I could take the two stanza piece, I rounded up the written responses. In the square dance of stacking about 30 responses on my desk while the class made a beeline for the open door, I couldn’t help but see that one of my classmates had slipped his response into the pile, nervously. His smile was plastered on in that fake immobile way, and he obviously wanted his paper to get lost in commotion, hopeful that I would not read it. So, the first thing I do when I pick up the pile is read his notes. I was devastated. He said that my piece a waste of his time, and that workshopping my work wasted everyone’s time. I was shocked, and disappointed that the workshopping process had put me in the position where I was at the mercy of other people’s opinions. I was livid. This anger boiled over to my .edu email account where I found the classmate and gave him back a piece of my boiling rage. He never responded to that rude email, and we never made eye contact in class again. The sad part is that it wasn’t the first time I had been disrespected in a workshop. I was once told that my stories were “for women” and lacked universal appeal…the list goes on.

The chapter 6 reading proves that we were not well trained to give each other feedback. We were never told to be kind, or actively listen. In the years I spent as a creative writing student, I was never told that there was a proper method to understand and I don’t doubt that my aggressive approach has also hurt fellow classmates. I once argued with another young woman about the validity using the term “baby prostitute” in her poem as if it were my own! In a way, this chapter makes me feel as if I was not adequately trained as a reader, and I look forward to the corrective education.

[Anonymous]

#569

Hi Chrislande – your experiences sound familiar. I fulfilled my requirements for a B.F.A. in Creative Writing and then decided to stay another year to graduate with a B.A. in English because of similar demoralizing experiences. After workshopping in poetry, play, fiction, and creative nonfiction courses, I also noted a mix of purposeless competitive edge and judgment. I think there’s a mixture of deep insecurity, competition, and uncertainty about one’s writing that can create an urge to criticize and lash out. One regret I have about how I conducted myself in those workshops is that there always was, inevitably, one or a few participants who earnestly showed up to read and give feedback and who desired the same. I would have liked to make contact with them after class or via email and just offer a conversation, rather than writing off the entire workshop as a general failure.

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