Workshop

Throughout my academic career, my writing has mostly been persuasive and it's what I've grown confident of. I've always loved the idea of creative writing but I it felt so foreign to me, whereas persuasive writing comes naturally and I am conscious of its strengths and weaknesses. When I would write creatively, I was never pleased with what I wrote; I guess that the unfamiliarity with it made me feel detached from it in an emotional sense as well as in a way where I couldn't tell if it was good or not (if that makes sense). Workshop really put into perspective the value of my creative writing. I honestly thought my poem wasn't exactly the best but having everyone give really positive feedback about it helped me become more conscious about my writing and the details that make it good. Generally, workshop helped me become more aware and confident with my creative writing which not only encourages me to engage in it even more, but also helps me find my voice and identity as a creative writer. There a really no setbacks with workshop, my experience was entirely positive. (:

Seizing Workshop.

My experience with workshop was most definitely an eye opening one. I previously didn't realize just how insecure I was about my own writing. With all other assignments even if I did not quite love what I ended up with no one else would have been the wiser (other than of course Dr. Groner). Workshop made me push myself to want to write something I found worthy enough to share with my peers. Due to this I wrote and rewrote 3 different poems. I was constantly analyzing which form I should use, how I should do my line breaks, etc. What I came up with was the poem I work-shopped but I could never decide how I wanted to format and do my line breaks. That is when I threw out all of my previous attempts and accepted that my peers could be the deciding factors. When it came time to read my poem I have no idea why I got so nervous. At one point my body was shaking so violently that I had a hard time controlling my voice and seeing what I was reading. I felt like I was having a seizure. Workshop taught me not to fear the editing process and the poetry unit in general taught me that its OK to not always be abstract. Sometimes a simple straight forward description is more powerful than some fluffed up abstract metaphor. I enjoyed workshop and hopefully next time I wont be as nervous.

Workshop, Fun Stuff!

Workshop was so useful in telling me what I thought I was getting across, and what people actually read in the poem. It also revealed unintentional meanings that I either liked or didn’t like or felt neutral about. For instance, I used Neptune as a boundary for chasing a lost cause relationship, and a lot of people in class looked for an astrological or theoretical meaning in my choice of planet. But I really only chose Neptune for it’s distance. It felt right to me. So it was interesting to see people’s intrigue there even though I didn’t intend any hidden meaning. I might make that more clear, OR now that I’m aware of it, maybe I’ll look closer at planet choice.  

Also, can we talk about the confidence boost please? I know you guys had to say nice things about my work, but really… it helped. I was glad to hear that some of it worked.

So can we do this again?

Poetry Workshop

The poetry workshop was insightful and pushed many of us and our writing out of our comfort zones. Being the second student to present her poem was nerve-wracking. The first round of comments gave me confidence in my writing. The second portion opened my eyes to problems I did not see in the poem. The class focused on details and drew my focus in, creating a better poem afterwards. Most importantly, workshop showed me that as an author I need to recognize my audience. My audience does not have the story details I possess, making me more aware and cognizant of my story-telling. Surprisingly, the workshop was beneficial even when your work was not being analyzed. Responding to other students' poems provided new ideas, techniques, and style choices that could potentially benefit our personal revision process. The poetry workshop was entertaining, honest, and humbling easily making all of our writing better.

POETRY WORKSHOP

Our in-class workshop not only improved the poem I submitted but also opened my idea of composing and revising poetry altogether. Hearing each individual remark about my own poem allowed me to view my own poem as a first-time reader would again and again. These fresh perspectives revealed ambiguities and inconsistencies within the poem I previously would not have thought to revise. At first, I felt hesitant to share my work with others, but I liked understanding which parts of my poem drew readers further into my writing and which parts proved totally ineffective. I now know where I can begin to improve this poem and my future writing. The workshop emphasized the fact that ultimately my poem should stand alone without my explanation. Recognizing that poetry implies a relationship with a reader in this way will shape my poetry in the future because I will try to understand the purpose of my own poetry as precise pieces of communication to a reader rather than simply as moments of self-expression. At the same time, this workshop offered me the opportunity to read other poems to gain insight into how others approach poetry and to decide what parts of other poems I admired and could implement in my own writing. Each poem contributed new possibilities that really excited my attention. My classmates taught me how to communicate through attention to detail structure in their own poetry. I saw by reading these examples that I want to do these things in my own poetry. Mostly, I honestly enjoyed reading the work of my classmates. As I do not get to share in the writing process of other individuals in this way very often, I found myself motivated to provide praise and constructive criticism. I feel more of a supportive community forming within our class that motivates me.

Poetry Workshop

First, it is important to say that the experience of being critiqued was not nearly as horrible as I thought it would be. I was surprised, and pleased, at how many good things people had to say about my poem. That being said, the criticisms that I received made total sense and have helped me understand not only how to make revision to make my poem better, but I think will help when I write in the future to be aware of what I am saying and how I am saying it.
Working with others in the way that the workshop dictates was also quite enjoyable. One is allowed to give their honest opinion on the work of discussion and have the floor, as it were, to do so in a manner that is without disruption and allows for further discussion. The author of the work at hand is able, thanks to the lovely bubble of silence, to not only hear all of these critiques but also have (if even a small) learning experience of taking criticism in such a way as to just take it in a positive way and for what it is (which I know for me is sometimes hard).
At times I feel like we as a class got off track with regard to whatever piece we were working on. This was sometimes frustrating, but at the same time I think maybe it lightened the tone of the class and allowed everyone not to take themselves TOO seriously. I really enjoyed reading everyone's poems. You realize how much talent everyone else has, even if one does not consider themselves a poet or a writer. Some of the poems we've read made me go "WOW," or think quite deeply about the subject matter. Others made me laugh; either way I think everyone's work is worth something (maybe it is not all journal or publisher-worthy, but there is real meaning in everyone's work).

Workshop

Going into the poetry workshop I was ridiculously nervous because I have never read any of my writing out loud to a whole class. After I got through reading the poem, it wasn't bad. All the positive comments and suggestions I received were really helpful and encouraging. I found it really beneficial to read other people's poems because I found new ideas and ways to go about writing through other's writing. Reading other people's work made me feel like I'm a terrible writer, but at the end of the day I got to read fifteen pages of nice words and that made me feel not so bad. We have so many talented writers in our class, the poetry workshop really encouraged me to become a better poet and to use all the different forms and techniques I've been learning throughout the semester. Overall, I enjoyed my first writing workshop and look forward to the next one.

Workshop Experience

I've always found workshops to be a helpful and enjoyable experience. This was my first workshop on poetry, a form that I am not likely to use, and as such was a bit new in workshop form to me. I always particularly enjoy going through what works in the poetry and what could stand to be improved upon. It helps to always get into mind what a possible audience thinks of the piece so the author can make sure that the intended point is coming across. Especially workshopping an erasure was interesting since it's such a limiting form that is based more on what I can find rather than what I create. It was good to find out that my own voice was managing to come through Freud's words and now I'm interested to see if I can create a proper response.

Come one, come all! Be judged!

For me, it has always been a comfort that no matter how terrible my work was, it would only be seen by myself and the professor I'd turn it in to. So, naturally, I thought that comfort would dissipate immediately upon hearing about this workshop. I imagined myself on a scaffold, Hawthorne style, as scathing criticisms were thrown at me like rotten tomatoes while I would try to convince everyone that I did not deserve the red "F-" embroidered to my clothes. Well, that's a bit of an embellishment as to what I actually thought it would be like, but you get the idea. I was freaking out.

To my (very pleasant) surprise, the workshop was nothing like that. It's like I had forgotten that our entire class is filled with some of the nicest people that would never throw rotten tomatoes at anyone unless they were asked to. It was a bit nerve-wracking to be the first person judged, but really all of the criticism was welcomed and super constructive. It's one thing to get one second opinion on your work, it's an even better thing to get fifteen. The only issue I could really find is that the class was divided on one aspect on my work, leaving me completely clueless as to which side I should listen to in terms of elaborating on my narrative. Hopefully I can get that figured out before the portfolio is due! 

Yet receiving the criticism wasn't the only beneficial part of the workshop. I found that reading and critiquing everyone else's work has helped improved mine as well. Seeing all the other techniques everyone used in their poems gave me different ideas as to what I should do to my work in order to improve it. Also, critiquing each work helped me see the different kind of things I should avoid when working on my portfolio. In all, I walked into this workshop expecting sweaty palms and tears, but instead I was greeted with wise critiques and a better idea of how to write poetry. I think that's a pretty great outcome. 

Werk shaaaap

I really enjoyed the workshop process!  Before my poem was work shopped, I was really nervous.  The idea of the class reading and critiquing my poem in front of everyone was a terrifying thought, especially because I decided to workshop a poem that I knew needed work.  I like that we first go around the circle and say something positive about the poem; it made me feel like there were parts of my poem that were good, even though there were parts of it that could be more clear too.  I really enjoyed being able to read everyone's poems, and they were all really good! Our class was a fun class to workshop with; everyone gave great advice and good constructive criticism.  I feel like because of the workshop, I have the tools to make my poem better.  Also, reading everyone's work was very inspiring! There are so many wonderful poets in our class.

Thank you everyone for a great workshop!

A Very Beneficial Workshop

I found the past few weeks of workshops very enlightening. I find that beginning the critique of any persons poem with what they did well, is really helpful for them. It builds confidence in what we wrote and allows us to feel better about our personal creations. Following the praise with gentle criticism is also very helpful in that it also builds confidence and understanding of the mistakes we made in our papers and what can help us get better. I also think that passing around feedback from every student in the room is great in that we can read the small yet big errors in our poem that they saw. The friendly feedback that my peers gave me back really helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses. My beautiful language and extreme use of metaphor, yet my lack of specificity caused my paper not to be as efficient as it could be. I thoroughly appreciate the helpful comments I received from my workshop. I look forward to applying them to my revamp of the poem.

Poetry Workshop

            The workshop really helped me realize the shortcomings of my poem since I was able to get feedback from many different people. Coming out of my writing bubble and having my poem criticized is a bit scary but it was rewarding, nonetheless. Having some of my favorite lines criticized or liked by many was nice since it showed that all opinions are valuable, even when they vary from person to person. When you’re writing a story-based poem it’s easy to leave out simple details because you already know the story in your head. Hearing criticism from other writers also allowed me understand the confusing or unclear aspects of my poem. Some of the lines that may have made sense to me while writing the poem may not necessarily make sense at a later date or my audience. After receiving feedback I was able to fix some of the issues by adding or removing lines. While writing I sometimes forget about the audience and being reminded of their existence caused me to rework some aspects of my poem. It's often easy to forget that you're not just writing for yourself, but for other people and the workshop helped me realize that. Reading the poem out loud also helped because I was able to correct any rhythmic or pacing issues with the overall poem. Even when reading a poem to yourself it is often easy to miss over a few issues. The workshop was a really good learning experience for me because I was able to understand the shortcomings of my work.

Poetry Workshop: A Good Experience

The poetry workshop was definitely a fully rewarding experience for me. Since I consider myself more of a prose writer than a poet I wasn't especially looking forward to the poetry section in this class at first. When the theoretical part and the writing of my own poems went surprisingly well, I got curious about the workshop, mostly because I had never done a workshop before and wasn't sure what to expect.

It was definitely not easy for me to read my own poem in front of the whole class. It is one thing to hand it out to everybody and read the written comments a week later, but sitting down and reading out loud a poem not written in my mother tongue, knowing that I had all the attention focused on me, really made me feel uncomfortable. My tendency to include a lot of personal experience and feelings in my writing didn't exactly help.

The 20 minutes of close attention dedicated to my poem turned out to be very helpful. After the hardest part, the reading, was over, I was really amazed by the comments of my fellow students who really seemed to have gotten into the poem with honest curiosity. The comments were mostly helpful and I think I was able to improve my poem considerably because of them.

The workshop was a unique opportunity and a privilege and I am happy I was able to participate in it. I am convinced the workshop will have an impact on my future writings in poetry and in prose. I got a new feeling for the importance of revision and self-criticism and think that I can improve a lot of my works by being more critical in the future. It was no easy lesson to learn, but definitely a rewarding one.