Workshop for Writing?

"To workshop your writing is the building blocks to your future"~~joni

A lot of people tell me they’ve been writing for years. They also say they are ready to submit their work to a publisher/editor.

I say, "Did you workshop it?"

They say to me with jaw hanging open I’m sure, "Workshop it, what put it on the chopping block?"

"Well no, that is not what I meant. What I mean is, did you have a group of your peers look at it and let them give you their opinion?"

"Well no, my work is good, I don’t need anyone’s opinion. It is THAT good."

Let me tell you friends, that is a bad idea. That is your ego talking and it can get you into a lot of trouble. Remember my post on EGO? It’s down a few pages but I distinctly remember telling you to put it on the shelf for a rainy day and pull it out when you’re feeling down. When it comes to writing, there is no place for your ego!

I remember when I first started putting my poetry out there. I thought it was so good and didn’t need a word neither here nor there. My peers liked my work but saw in it great potential, not perfection. Well slap me upside the head and call me silly, why don’t you? That was the reality check that I needed to get this determined writer moving.

Once I saw where I needed work I went right to it reshaping, restructuring, molding it to make it shine like a bronze statue.(I’d say a Gold statue but then that would be my ego talking again.)

There are many workshops around the internet but the home I found was Writer’s Village University. This is the place where my work is safely displayed (without the eyes of millions) and other writers safely critique it. I say safely displayed because my home at WVU is password protected where only members have access.

My peers are either published author’s or new budding writers who want to learn the craft and aid another writer in their dream. It is like having a pack of rainbows tucked into one workshop with a bunch of little elves making my pot of gold dream come true.

It is important to see where you need assistance at in your work. Even published author’s like to have another eye looking over their work to see if they might have missed something or if there is something, when added to the story, will give it the extra punch it needs to get published.

Never fear having your work in a workshop. Even Santa needed a workshop! Why? So he could bring the best that he had to offer to the entire world. Now get to work on building a glorious story for your workshop. Make it the best tool that you use in your career.