Workshop is a rewarding yet daunting experience, even for a veteran creative writing or English major. The dreaded workshop date looms ever closer, a Black Spot staining your calendar, a dark eye staring you down as you toil away on your computer. When that bleak day finally arrives, you are unsure if you can even make it to class at all. You hear the howling of dogs nipping at your heels, feel the hot breath of danger and death as it breathes down your neck.
When you step into the classroom, the tables have been arranged in a circle. Your classmates turn their heads to you as one, sweatshirt hoods drawn up like occultist robes. You swallow hard as you take your seat, hands shaking as you pull out your laptop and begin reading your piece at your professor’s behest. When you are done: silence. Silence so deep and profound that you find yourself sinking in it. After the longest moment of your life, your classmates raise their hands. The critique has begun.
I think the worst part of workshop is everything leading up to it. In the darkness of my room, between the clacking of the keyboard as I type, I have so much time to imagine worst-case scenarios and play them out over and over again in my head. Everyone will laugh at me. Everyone will hate my story. No one will have anything nice to say. What if the nice things they do say are just lies because they feel bad for me? What if, what if—
Hey. Take a deep breath. Try to relax. When things get overwhelming, just remember that the most important opinion of your writing is your own. Don’t let fear of judgment get in the way of the story that’s aching to burst out of you. Remember that first drafts are always going to be bad—and that’s a good thing. Lean into the writing process. It may be arduous, time-consuming, and draining, but being able to see something that once existed solely in your head come alive in the real world is perhaps the most rewarding part of being a writer. Besides a multi-million-dollar book deal, of course.
The most important thing to remember during workshops is that at the end of the day, it’s meant to help you. Whether you decide to heed certain critiques or not, hearing others’ feedback on your work will only help you become a better writer and help your story be the best it can possibly be.
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