Receiving Feedback in Writing Workshop
Does it ever get easier? Here are some things I like to remember.
This is the final missive in a three-part series on creative writing workshops. Part 1 focused on what a workshop can offer. Part 2 focused on finding or choosing the right creative writing workshop for you.
Receiving feedback on your workshop pages can be one of the most helpful and invigorating parts of the process of becoming a better writer. And it can also be nerve wracking, confusing and hard.
If there’s a hill I’ll die on when it comes to teaching creative writing it’s that no writing advice applies to every type of writer or every stage of your process.
But here are some things I like to remember when receiving feedback in a writing workshop. Take what resonates with you, and leave the rest (and don’t skip any steps; reflecting on what resonates and what doesn’t is part of the work):
What should I bring to workshop?
I bring an essay or excerpt to workshop when I feel “stuck” with it or I feel like there’s something I’m not seeing.
There is much to be gained from reading and sharing our own writing in class without offering feedback, but that’s not what workshop is for.
What you’re saying when you bring a piece to workshop is “I feel like this could be better or say what I’m trying to say more clearly but I’m not sure how.”
It’s OK to be nervous!
Whether you’re workshopping your writing for the first time, or you’ve done it for years, the process can bring up a lot of discomfort. It’s hard to hear that our writing — something so personal, so vulnerable — is not perfect, even if we know that perfection doesn’t really exist. Don’t worry if it leaves you a little rattled. It’ll pass!
Listen carefully to the workshop even if it’s not your writing being workshopped
It’s easy to view workshop in a transactional way: I’ll workshop your work because you’ve agreed to workshop mine. But every part of the workshop is an opportunity to learn about examining and shaping your own work.
Maybe the writer being workshopped is struggling with the same craft question that’s keeping you stuck. Or maybe something they are discussing will prompt an idea. Notice the ways that other people in workshop are asking questions. Are those questions you might need to ask of your own work?
Workshop is an opportunity for deep engagement with another person’s writing but also with how you experience that writing and what that can tell you about your own creative process.
You can ask for the kind of feedback you need
In my workshops, each time a writer turns in pages for workshop, I also require that they fill out an Artist Statement, a set of five questions that encourages the writer to reflect on their writing process and what they’d like to focus on in workshop.
I got these five questions from Felicia Rose Chavez’s The Anti Racist Writing Workshop — a must-read for anyone teaching creative writing; I think it’s the best book on the subject of nurturing a creative writing classroom, even if its not a diverse classroom.
The last question on this Artist Statement says: What do you need help sorting out? List 3 craft-based questions about your project to guide feedback.
On one hand, it can be illuminating to leave the workshop open ended because you never know what kind of feedback you might receive that you didn’t even know you needed. But I also think workshops can offer more agency to the writer being workshopped by allowing them to zero in on what exactly they’d like feedback on.
A backup is a good idea
As all nonfiction writers know, memory is a tricky thing. Sometimes I’ll think I correctly remember something someone said in workshop, but when I review my recording I find that I’d garbled the meaning or misinterpreted. And sometimes I get so overwhelmed with feedback that I can’t quite figure out what to tackle first. That’s why I always bring a backup. After getting permission from the other participants, I recommend that all writers record their workshop session when they are receiving feedback. I record mine using the voice memo of my cellphone.
Listen to yourself
I think one of the biggest barriers to accepting and integrating helpful feedback on your writing is not having enough awareness of your own vision. I think feedback is most perilous for inexperienced writers who might not yet know themselves, which is why I think writers should produce a lot of writing on their own before they are ready to join a workshop.
This is exacerbated by writing instructors who pass down “writing rules” as if they are one size fits all. I often meet writers who are holding onto those writing rules so tightly in an effort to make an uncertain and unwieldy process more manageable — but it ends up paralyzing them.
“I read that you should write every day if you want to take your work seriously.”
“I paid a lot of money for a developmental editor who told me that memoirs shouldn’t use too many flashbacks.”
(Those are just two examples.)
Part of my job as a creative writing teacher is to guide you toward your own voice. I’ll often offer a few different things to try, and encourage you to experiment and explore to find what works best for you and your work.
A quote that I always show my students as we begin to workshop together is taken from the first craft book I ever read on writing and teaching, called Writing Alone and With Others, by Pat Schneider. It states:
“When you ask someone for a critical opinion, take suggestions for change only when they meet with an answering YES in your own mind. The best kind of critical suggestion is the one that causes you to think, Oh I knew that! Or That’s exactly right!”
Notice patterns
If only one person suggests a specific note of feedback (like “I wasn’t understanding the narrator’s motivation,” for example), then it might just be their own taste and/or level of comprehension. If a few people in workshop agree with the same feedback note, then it’s probably something to flag.
Treat yourself afterwards!
I am always shocked at how tired I am after workshop. It is a lot of work to hear that much input from others, especially if it’s on a piece of writing that you’ve taken great pains to make “perfect.” Don’t brush that fatigue off. Instead, acknowledge it. Take a walk outside. Have a nap. Take a bubble bath. Eat a cookie. Do something that feels restful or rejuvenating. (I wrote more about this in Julia Green’s Substack Writing is Joy.)
Let the feedback sit
I never start to revise right after workshop. In fact, I usually wait up to a week to revisit my pages. It’s helpful to let the feedback settle and to see what feels the most urgent. However, don’t wait too long to revise, or you might lose the thread. Experiment and find your revision sweet spot.
Don’t be afraid to ask followup questions
Maybe someone’s handwriting is hard to read. Or maybe someone said something in workshop that you thought you understood, but seems fuzzy when you revisit it. Don’t be afraid to ask for further clarification, either from the individual workshop member or the whole workshop. Your fellow workshop participants want you to get the most out of your experience. You aren’t being annoying.
Sometimes feedback won’t make sense for a long time
I kept boxes of papers from my MFA program. In those days one would print out hard copies of our workshop pages and the instructors would write on them in pencil or pen and you hoped you could read their handwriting. Upon revisiting them I found many instances where feedback that went over my head or seemed confusing or unhelpful at the time suddenly made sense. Learning to write is a lifelong learning process; you might still be implementing feedback years after it was given.
You don’t always need to be in workshop
Writing workshops are only one way to nurture a writing practice. Sometimes a skills-based or specific craft based class would better serve your writing needs.
There are times in my writing practice when I know workshop feedback will be helpful for my essays or works-in-progress, and sometimes weeks, months or even years when I just need to write and explore on my own. It’s important to know the difference.
Writers, I’d love your thoughts. What am I missing? What have you learned when it comes to feedback in workshop? Comment below.
Read Part 1 of this series here and Part 2 of this series here.
You are reading the intangibles, by writer and creative writing instructor Allison Kirkland. This publication is geared toward writers of memoir and creative nonfiction and the people who love them.
If a paid subscription doesn't make sense for you right now, there are other ways to support the growth of this reader-supported publication:
click that little heart to "like" the post
gift a subscription to a creative friend
share this essay with another writer
Want more? You can find me on Instagram or visit my website. Thanks for reading. I’m so glad you’re here.
So much wisdom here--I appreciate how you've unpacked what most people consider a straightforward process. There's so much depth!
A lot of good advice here, Allison, thanks for this. Workshop can be exhausting, it's good to be reminded of how to approach it, deal with it in the moment, and consider it afterwards.