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.