online writers workshops

online writers workshops

The Benefits and Best Practices of Online Writers Workshops

1. Introduction to Online Writers Workshops

Online writers workshops share many of the features of their physical counterparts. Writing students may submit their own work for critique, they are expected to submit written crits of other students’ work, and the group as a whole may gather in an online forum to discuss the work. Instructors for online writers workshops might not be household names, but have published writing of their own, have taught writing previously, and are therefore qualified to guide. The topics covered will be varied, but students can usually find a class in the discipline they are most interested in. Classes are also hugely convenient. Students may work wherever they can find an internet connection. Instructors often encourage students to pace themselves with weekly assignments. Students might draw out the classwork for a longer period than a few weeks, or accelerate their activities if they make the time. With pay-as-you-go models, students are not restricted to strictly enforcing their time commitment!

Thanks to the ubiquity of the internet, participation in a writers workshop is suddenly no longer a matter of venturing out of your house and traveling to the workshop. Instead, all of the trappings of a workshop – writing, revision, and discussion – are conducted in the comfort of your own home (though it’s probably a good idea to force oneself to put pants on, even then). Online writers workshops offer many of the same benefits as their physical counterparts, but they are uniquely suited for busy, geographically bound, or timid writers. Here’s how to find an online workshop that may work well for you.

2. Advantages of Participating in Online Writers Workshops

As you know, writing is a solitary activity and participants must find the patience to make a commitment to always go the distance, even if that distance is a very long one. With this support and these tools, all participants begin getting somewhere with their writing projects. It’s all the same, all works that are presented for critique are welcome. Parameters are discussed and rules are kept in focus, with trust, respect, and confidentiality firmly held in the binding. Small groups open and close each module. A different instructor leads several short weekly exercises. Workshops facilitate ongoing critique of revisions as needed, until each discussion is satisfactorily polished. Every participant is a story creator with equal privilege in this equal opportunity forum, with kindergarten rules of neutrality and goodwill always in place. In effect, these workshops also keep established writers creating as well as providing assistance to sanctify the direction of flowing thoughts as part of the process, and build confidence.

In the past, daily life and family demands might have been kept to a minimum, but today people are unable to sit quietly in their rooms and write 24/7. Career demands are always lurking in the background. Financial problems are usually off to the side somewhere, as is their health. Because we are all blessed or cursed with busy lives, the need for an audience is crucial and rather strengthens true commitment. When family commitments arise, these usually dear relatives are usually accommodating and congratulatory because, after all, the writer is a part of their lives and the family is part of the story. This is the right story. In addition, of course, group and forum discussions in these workshops cover various aspects of the writing process, whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, including queries, proposals, or treatments, as well as promotion and marketing in the publishing world.

Getting started is obviously that first, most difficult step, but once new writers begin participating in online writers’ workshops and receive constructive critiques from others, they slowly build the endurance and confidence needed to move forward. The next benefit is that participating in a structured and ongoing way doesn’t have to be expensive. When a writer bypasses a high tuition, which usually covers all expenses for a week or weekend conference or retreat, plus airfare and meals, and commits to a month at a time, and part-time, priced by the week or month, as in an online workshop, that writer is then more committed also. Entrance costs are lower, and changes can be made if necessary. A writer’s life does not belong to him/herself alone. The commitment to a writing group offers valuable support. Participants often depend on each other for encouragement when needed. People continue to write because they choose to finish what they started.

In our increasingly global society, no matter where we may live, an internet connection is usually readily available. Having high-speed access allows people who live in rural areas and/or those who are unable to travel to participate in online writers’ workshops, to be part of a community of fellow writers who truly want to help other writers grow and improve, whether those writers are experienced and ready to submit to agents or publishers, or are beginners just starting out. Those workshopping may be full-time students, homemakers, or professionals who have always wanted to write their life stories as memoir, but didn’t know where to begin. Everyone begins at a different stage.

3. Key Elements of a Successful Online Writers Workshop

Attending a live workshop with a knowledgeable and personable instructor and a group of empathetic writers just feels good, and is a great motivator and a powerful catalyst to writing a good book that isn’t necessarily edited to death (or to death of the writer’s original vision) before publication. Characters have a chance to develop into multi-faceted, thoroughly motivated personalities. Snappy dialogue can achieve its purpose, establishing effortlessly both the personality and the boundaries of the characters who speak. Small tweaks can produce transformation and flow. And the website, blog, or book that results at the end of your experience will be a book on which there is unanimity of praise among all participants.

A daytime, evening, or weekend series of online writing classes, each hosted by an instructor and attended by writers who can all see and hear one another, isn’t just a wimpy imitation of the in-person experience; it can be a pretty darned good approximation, leaving writers with an improved manuscript and a ‘writers’ high’ at the end of the series. (We use either Skype or a conference call at the phone number each writer provides us, depending on the size and specific requirements of the group.)

4. Choosing the Right Online Writers Workshop for Your Needs

Prices – Generally speaking, you get what you paid for in life, and this is definitely the case with most things in life, and certainly writers workshops are no different. But the term “most” is in that last sentence for a reason: there are poor workshops that you can pay good money for, and there are a few good workshops that are relatively cheap. Research your options if you have a limited budget. It really doesn’t make any sense to plow extra cash into a workshop when your work would have been equally well critiqued for far less, but it’s worth keeping in mind that for every talented writer who would also be a great critique partner, there are several who are embarrassingly poor writers who will actually hurt your writing, and most of them offer free workshops.

Levels – There are workshops that cater to different levels of writers. Although most writing workshops at their base level only require a passion for writing and a willingness to be critiqued, there are definitely advanced workshops that require an application process. If you’re not interested in being critiqued in an environment of beginners, stick to advanced or intermediate workshops.

If you’re considering attending an online writers workshop to improve your writing, here are some things to take into consideration to ensure that your time and money are well spent and to maximize the number of benefits you receive:

Choosing the right online writers workshop

5. Conclusion and Future Trends in Online Writers Workshops

Amongst the best-liked features of the workshop through survey feedback are the exchange of pieces and reviews between the writer and learners, and therefore, the opportunity to share contents with other participants, greater learning with respect to different work genres, ease of joining a writing group, and the possibility of making contacts with different writing groups. Suggested improvements include making the platform more interactive and user friendly, increasing the interaction between the participant and the platform, promoting extracurricular activities such as writing and short literary production contests in partnership with publishers, organizing distance writing courses, fostering closer contact, and above all, respecting individual characteristics and diversity, regulating the behavior of overactive members, and maintaining a sense of respect as a fundamental feature of this interactive writing community.

In the last 10 years, technology has been the major revolution in literature and language learning. According to our data, essays, poems, classes, author reviews, and many other activities that the past demanded hours of work, study, and patience, and attention to be produced, today can be generated and distributed quickly and simply. The social, cognitive, affective, and technical benefits of this unfolding relationship are, following survey feedback, heightened in the framework of the online writers workshop, which takes a growing part in the development not only of the writer but also as a consequence, of reading that is translated into written texts of better quality and higher social interaction.