Sunday

ARE WRITING WORKSHOPS WORTH IT?

Today I had an interesting question from a potential writing workshop participant who wanted to know what he would learn in the half day event that he couldn't learn online by himself. The reply is - nothing. The difference is that a workshop (mine, anyway) is based on hundreds of hours of online research, years of personal experience from writing over 3 books ( I could make a case for 5 or 6), thousands of hours of client writing time, the combined knowledge gleaned from coaching authors of every stripe, 60 years of reading, collaborations with editors, artists, printers, distributors, internet experts, publishers, designers, online media professionals and marketing experts, about 100 hours spent in other writer's workshops, countless webinars, the consistent reading of about 3 dozen writer's blogs, the lifelong thirst for knowledge and a desire to share it and Sister Mary Andrew, my grade 8 teacher from St. John's School in Kitchener, Ontario who made it alright to be intellectually curious and OK to carry a book for the pure pleasure of reading it.
The most important part of this answer is that the workshop combines all of these resources and then distills, organizes and energizes it into three hours dedicated to making the participants successful authors. Added to this is the ability to ask questions, receive feedback, make connections, learn real-world and real-time lessons based on today's realities and walk away with an actionable plan that will result in a better book, written faster and easier that will provide incredible value to the readers and the author.
It was a great question because it forced me to really look at my workshops and revisit the value they bring to the participants over and above the marketing used to sell them. I am very proud of the workshop that I have created because it is based on my lifelong passion for the written word and the absolute belief that everyone has a story to tell and my mission is to encourage them to do just that. Thanks again for asking.

3 comments:

  1. I took part in one workshop and never again. It was held in a hotel and they charged for the water to put in a kettle. The workshop itself was awful and I was put in with a group of people who thought a character's appearance was the same as their character. I finally gave up trying to explain and went to the pub for lunch and just never went back.

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  2. I would have to disagree with your potential participant. Even though I have not been to your workshop, I will go out on a limb and say a participant would gain a lot more than what he will find online. Human interaction is more valuable then reading by oneself online. And he will learn both from you as well as the other participants.

    Now, if he really wants to learn to write, he should do two things:

    1. Read every book he can get his hands on in the genre he is writing. Read the masters.
    2. Write every day.

    What your workshop will do is to shorten the learning curve, but in the end it is the process of writing that will teach him the most.

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