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What’s a WWP meeting like?
Even though each meeting follows a familiar, effective format of meet ‘n eat, craft discussion, and professional workshop, with up to 10 lively authors in a room (plus me), each meeting will have its own tone and theme.
For example, tonight’s meeting dispensed with a craft lecture in favor of a discussion of writing questions and answers (I brought a ton – literally – of reference books to consult). Writers’ questions up for discussion ranged from nuts and bolts to larger aesthetic issues, such as:
How do you format interior monologue to set it off from narrative? What’s the line between fiction and non-fiction? What’s the difference between “literary” fiction and the rest of it! How do you write dialogue to show a non-native speaker? What’s a good way to indicate the passage of time between scenes? How much do characters change? How do you get over writer’s block?
In the process we also talked about style & voice, Roman a clef, picaresque, subtext, conflict resolved vs situation revealed plots, and intellectual property rights issues when quoting song lyrics. What a free-ranging and interesting discussion! I definitely will include more craft Q&A in the future.
Then comes the workshop. Each story has its own life and its own needs. Critiquing one draft is an education for every writer present, because of the issues we get to examine. Our first story, a “short short” slice of life draft, has an interesting and humorous plot but can benefit from additional economical character and setting development to create surprise and deepen the story.
Next, a draft chapter of a picaresque novella that’s really starting to look like it has to be a full length novel. Especially as one tantalizing scene ends too quickly and we all want to see more development. In today’s excerpt thers’s a dramatic turn in a character’s attitude which is delightful and surprising, but upon reflection needs more motivation – maybe backstory. There is also a question about the logic of one plot twist, and a suggestion to elaborate on some of the setting.
The next draft we examine is billed as a short story, but when we learn the draft is 40 pages long, we have to inform the writer she’s creating a novella (a long one). The excerpt we review reveals this new participant in the WWP workshop to have evocative, beautifully poetic writing, nuanced and vivid. It’s exciting to see new work of this quality.
Our final draft of the day (not everyone brings a draft every time–some writers come just to be part of the process and learn) is this participant’s first foray outside of non-fiction and into short story. We congratulate her on having all the basic craft elements of character and plot in place – including a couple of surprise twists. The exuberance the author had in writing this draft is clear from the narrative (remember those days of excitement at working with a new form?). She seems ready to move to the next level so we discuss some glitches in timing and pacing, how to keep pressure on the main character, raise the stakes, and add some new elements.
As you can see, you can never predict what issues will come up in a given evening of workshopping, or the genres you’ll be called upon to critique – including CNF, screenplay, and poetry–but you can always predict that it will be professional, community building, interesting, and helpful.
