Boskone 2009 Workshop Panel

I was at Boskone over the weekend and on three panels: Workshopping, Beyond Darwin and Treachery for Fun and Profit. I'll put my notes up here.

So: Today is Workshopping. I'm a founding member of the Cambridge SF Workshop. I won't bother talking about it in specifics since the link goes to the workshop website. Suffice to say, it has been in continuous operation since 1980-- next year we're going to celebrate our 30th anniversary.

Given that, the notes I have for the workshop panel reflect experiences I've had in CSFW.

Enjoy.




Boskone 2009 Workshop Panel

About Me
• Clarion, 1978
• Co-founder CSFW, 1980-present
• Ran several 1 day workshops for Boskone and Readercon
• Poobah CSFW, last 8 years? ("Poobah" translates to "He Who Washes the Windows")

Inappropriate Things I have seen people use the workshop for
• Find somebody to sleep with
• Find somebody else to sleep with
• Find somebody to talk to regarding someone sleeping with or used to sleep with
• (insert other relationship possibilities here)
• Find interesting people to talk to
• Find people to talk to about how boring non-writers are
• Find other writers who must be more interesting than the last dreary bunch of writers.
• Find escape from people who are too interesting
• Find people to go drinking with
• Find people with more interesting ideas that can be stolen
• Find a good group of writers that won't steal ideas (mythical)
• Find someone to motivate the writing
• Find someone to motivate the re-writing
• Find a place to escape from the spouse
• Find approval for your work
• Find approval for writing
• Find group therapy
• Get better at the writing so I can support my acting (almost right)

A Workshop's only purpose is as a tool to help a writer become a better writer.

What a workshop provides
• A different point of View on your material
• Present material that represents at different pov on writing
• By critiquing other work your own work improves
• Retain community excitement for the act of writing
• Reinforcement of the worthiness of the activity
• An intelligent and articulate audience

Attitudes to take towards the workshop
• Be libertarian about the workshop: it must benefit you to be useful
• Be honest: the workshop might be telling you somthirig useful even if you don' t like it
• Be true: decide for yourself what is useful
• Be clear: recognize that if 5 people say the same thing there's something to it.
• Be also clear: What the workshop perceives, though real, may not be what is actually there

Things to leave at the door:
• Invective
• insults
• agenda
• personal distaste
• Drama
• Performance art
• wife, husband, children, mother in law, lover, dying parent -- except as they relate to the story or critique

Things to bring to the session
• Passion
• Effort
• Expertise
• Personal Offense (if my story is offensive to somebody, it's important to know. That might be my intention.)
• Beer. Brownies are also acceptable

Workshops are not for the squeamish.

Writing is not therapy. But Writing is analogous to therapy in that the writer must examine himself in the pursuit of the work.

Similarly, wokshopping is not group therapy. But, while the work is not the writer's self, it is derived from the writer's self. Therefore, indirectly, writer's flaws, blind spots and idiosyncrasies are laid bare and examined.

Suck it up.

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Wall of Idiots
Wrinkle Treatment using Baby Foreskins

Political Links
FactCheck.org Analyzes the Stimulus Bill
Global Warming Underestimated
Bipartisanship For Real

Links of Interest
Darwin on Godless Creation
Erica il Cane
Liz Lomax and here
Using Photosynthesis
Updike on Evolution
V: Backwards Beekeeper
Killer Asteroids
Artificial Life
Cold Virus Mapped
Darwin and Cancer
SETI wins TED
The Secret Weapon of Sponges
Why Birds Collide With Airplanes
Climate and Neanderthals
UUorld: Explaining the World With Maps
Orbitwheels

DIY
Timberkits
Touchatag: RFIDs for the People
Wind Generator
Gymnastics Rings
Indoor Hydroponics