Fiction Writing Workshops:
The Good, The Bad and The Ugh!

You may think fiction writing workshops are a perfect way to get better at novel writing (or whatever other fiction writing you may do).

I'd say yes, but cautiously. Because while many workshops will help you get better at your writing, many will not.

Here are some ideas to figure out what to look for and whether it's worth your cost to sign up for a workshop.


Fiction, Poetry or General Writing?

Before you even consider any fiction writing workshops, you should figure out why you want to go to one.

Do you want to improve your overall writing skills? Do you want to learn poetry as another form of writing release? Do you want to polish your fiction writing skills until they gleam?

Writing workshops come in a dozen varieties. For those who need across-the-board writing instruction in structure and style, a basic writer workshop might do the trick. If you're just beginning to write creatively, maybe you'd do well with a creative writing workshop, which might offer short story writing, poetry writing, or even memoirs.

Fiction and poetry writing workshops tend to combine both short fiction and the writing of poetry. Unless you want to do both, I recommend you find one that centers on one form or the other.

If you want to improve your fiction writing skills, you should probably look for workshops that cater exclusively to short story or novel writing. The closer the focus, the more likely you'll get good things out of it.

Another consideration is the location of the fiction writing workshop. If you don't live close to one that's offered, you'll have the expense of hotel added to the cost of the workshop. If that's an issue, an online writing workshop may be a better solution for you.

Cost is certainly a consideration. The price tags for workshops can vary wildly. An onsite fiction writing seminar can cost over $1000 easily, especially once you include room and board while you're there. In contrast, online writing workshops will run nearer the $100 to $500 range.

A quick look online brought up mostly east and west coast seminars, though I know for a fact there are local ones in the city I lived near in the midwest. You may have to do a more local search to see if one is offered near you.


What to Expect

As with styles of workshops, figuring out what to expect from fiction writing workshops can be intimidating. When you read the listings, most will sound like they offer "the best". Many use published authors as guest speakers, making them sound more interesting yet.

Unfortunately, just because an author is published it doesn't mean he or she is good at either speaking to groups or teaching their craft. Most especially, it doesn't mean they can teach how they do it.

Why? Because it takes time to evaluate the process and try to break it down. I'm certainly unable to describe the entire procedure I go through in writing a novel. Because I haven't yet done it exactly the same way twice.

That doesn't mean I can't find generalized methods that might help others.

Same goes for leaders of writing workshops. They may, or may not, be good at teaching what they do. They may or may not be published authors, even. Many courses are offered through universities and colleges. And academia-laden approaches to fiction writing can stifle the best fiction writer around.

That I know from experience. My writing suffered from college creative writing courses! The teachers were so caught up in their own angst, and if published, were only published locally and not very successfully... they didn't help me at all.

Other workshops often have students critique each other's writing. While this might help you learn to look at your own work more objectively, it certainly doesn't help you to have amateurs telling you what they like and dislike about your writing.

Too many students will tend to "be nice", or conversely to "be harsh" just so the teacher will think they're doing well. Many will take personal offense at what you've written. I'm sorry, but that's not the point at all!

Better are the workshops where only the leader critiques the student's writing.

Oral readings may be part of curriculum, but again, these may or may not be helpful. The quality of the reading (monotone or well-inflected) can make a big difference in how a story is viewed.

Hopefully, I haven't made you think all fiction writing workshops are useless. They aren't. But finding one that's going to help you get the most from it can be quite a task, and should be taken seriously. Don't just leap into a class because it's offered close to home. Try to find out how previous students liked it.

Then work hard to get the most from your chosen workshop. You'll undoubtedly benefit in the end.