Writer’s Workshop: A review from the front

by | Oct 7, 2015 | writing

I co-led my first writer’s workshop this past weekend. It was ah-mazing! It was nerve-wracking, exciting, a little stressful (for my perfectionist side), and just a lot of fun!

shaking handsMeeting other writers. This is always one of my favorite things about these events. Meeting writers in all walks of life. We had a good turn out and I enjoyed meeting these interesting people who are at different places in their journeys in learning more about the craft and toward publication. It was different to be interacting from the perspective of a presenter…I see myself as more a facilitator of the information rather than a teacher (as, by and large, I am more a student myself than anything else).

Disseminating Information. My partner and I had some information to share…information we felt would be helpful to a group of learning writers. We talked about brainstorming (mind-mapping), plotting, outlining, and research. It seemed from the questions and discussion that followed that our information was relevant and well-received.

conference1Guest Speakers. We did have a best selling author speak on layering a scene for a short stint and another author speak about his journey with non-fiction. Having guest speakers is something we intent to continue to do with our workshops. It can only enhance the experience for our attendees…relying on the expertise of others is only wisdom.

What would I do differently? While we wanted to have an information packed session, I do fear that we tried to cover too many topics. We could have selected a couple of the subjects and delved deeper into them for a more thorough session. But, overall, I think we did well with it being our first workshop to put on.

Can I get in on this? Glad you asked! If you are in the middle TN area (northern area), we will hold these workshops periodically. You can follow us on: Clarksville Christian Writers (on Facebook). Our next workshop will be October 25th and will be all about the journey to publication – querying, agents, marketing, and more!

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Sara R. Turnquist