The Benefits and Limitations of Writing Workshops

A Weekly Writing Workshop (aka Critique Group)

In 2005, I was attending a free weekly creative writing workshop (also referred to as a critique group) at a community college. Funding was eventually cut for the workshop, but many of the writers I connected with there are people I’m still connected with (mostly via Facebook these days), and they were the people I “recruited” when I founded my own writing workshop in 2007 (which I facilitated until 2015). One of the writers of the community college group was quite a talented writer; he’d bring in a story and none of us could find much to critique. He subsequently worked with an editor, and I believe he eventually got his novel published. Back in 2005, though, there came a time when he told us that he wasn’t really getting anything out of the group anymore, and the facilitator agreed with him; she mentioned that at a certain level, these kinds of groups weren’t of much benefit.

I remember feeling disappointed—I really liked his writing, and I also enjoyed him as a person. At the same time, though, I recognized and appreciated that he was a much better writer than the rest of us were at that point in time. Specifically, I remember wondering if I would ever get to the point where I would “outgrow” a critique group like he did.

Striving for Improvement

In my experience, most writers, including myself, struggle with some level of self-doubt regarding their writing ability. Indeed, it can often be difficult to assess the worth of one’s own writing, especially if we start comparing our writing to that of others. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also writers who have too much confidence in their writing and won’t listen to or apply constructive feedback in a way that might help them develop into stronger writers.

The healthier mindset is something of a mix of these: someone who strives for improvement, recognizing that there’s always room for improvement (and trying/learning something new), while also having an appropriate level of confidence in their ability.

The way one “strives for improvement” can take a variety of forms, and it often changes as one grows as a writer. This has been true for me. What I needed from my writing community 15+ years ago has changed considerably; as such, I’ve had to learn how to grow/broaden my writing community so that my current (and ever-changing) writing needs can continue to be met. It seems clear to me now that, back in 2005, the aforementioned writer friend was also exploring how he could best meet his writing needs.

Not everyone will find benefit from a critique group. Some find them too harsh or repetitive in the feedback; others may simply find them lacking in useful criticism. There are certainly myriad other reasons, too.

The Benefits

I started participating in writing critique workshops in 2004, and then founded my own community writing workshop in 2007, a group I led until 2015 and then participated in sporadically until 2020; in 2016, I was a founding member of another critique group. I also participated in critique workshops as part of my MFA program, from which I graduated in 2019. Needless to say, I have plenty of experience with the writing workshop/critique group model; and given that I continued to actively participate in such groups for so long, it should be evident that I’m a strong believer in the model’s benefits.

When one attends a critique group, they learn not just from the critiques they receive but also from the critiques they give. It is usually a valuable experience, as the aspiring writer learns to look more critically at writing, in general, as well as become immersed in the overall writing process.

For that reason, an effective writing workshop can be a critical tool for aspiring writers; case in point, I learned many of the basics of craft through my early workshop participation, and I reaped the benefits for many years…

…until I didn’t anymore.

And when I didn’t anymore, that’s when I thought back to that experience in 2005 with the writer who left the community workshop group. I had gotten to the point that he had, where I was no longer benefitting; this realization was almost surprising—I suddenly understood what he must have been starting to feel.

Pro Tip #1

A critique as one generally gets in a workshop is NOT an edit. A critique is an opinion, whereas an edit is professional guidance. Regardless of whether you attend a critique group or not, you will want to hire a professional editor at some point. Relying solely on a critique group is often one of the biggest mistakes authors make, particularly self-published authors. In some critique groups, you may have more experienced writers; as such, their opinion may hold more weight, but it is still not an edit. (Critiques from professors or professional mentors/editors—people you are paying to read your work—are generally an exception to this, as they are, in fact, providing professional guidance; it is still, however, generally not considered an edit.)

Two Factors to Consider

When deciding whether you can benefit from a writing workshop or not, there are two main factors to consider: 1) where you are as a writer (e.g., your skill level, experience, background, how serious of a writer you are) as well as what you write (e.g., short literary fiction, poetry) and 2) where the other workshop participants are as writers/what they write.

These two factors should be in relative alignment with each other. That said, the less experience one has as a writer, the more that person can benefit from a critique group, regardless of the other participants’ level of expertise and regardless of what type of genre (e.g., poetry, literary fiction, essays) they write. Similarly, the less experience a writer has, the less it matters what the other participants write; in fact, exposure to a variety of different kinds of writing can be very beneficial to an aspiring writer.

Ultimately, you, the writer, are the one to decide whether a group meets your needs or not. In 2016, I was a founding member of a group that had initially met in a writing class; as such, we had similar writing interests, goals, and experience, even though we all wrote different kinds of pieces. I enjoyed this group because everyone in it was actively taking writing workshops and classes, so there was always something to learn from one another.

Pro Tip #2

Skilled writers are not always skilled critiquers, and skilled critiquers may not necessarily be skilled writers. Remember that a critique is one person’s opinion and is often based on their overall writerly experience (e.g., what they read and how much/often; what they write and how much/often).

To develop as a writer, one needs to be challenged. A successful writer doesn’t need an MFA, but they do generally need to immerse themselves in a community where they are exposed to different types of ideas/discussion, literature/analyses, and various aspects of craft. I was fortunate to have lived in Iowa City, a UNESCO City of Literature with a vibrant literary community, for five years. In that time, I had the opportunity to attend many readings and author Q&As, as well as craft workshops and classes. I found myself being challenged by leaps and bounds as a writer; this experience, in fact, is what motivated me to enroll in an MFA program.

Pro Tip #3

Reading widely and as often as you can is crucial to developing as a writer. The more variety in the type of reading material, the better. Living in Iowa City introduced me to a lot of literature I would not have otherwise been exposed to, simply because I was surrounded by it.

The Limitations

Because a critique workshop generally involves people offering their opinions on a piece, what can happen is that the critiquers may try to turn a piece into something they would have written rather than looking at the piece as it is (and as the author intends it). What this often involves is people issuing prescriptive advice rather than focusing on what could actually help the writer improve the piece at hand. While aspiring writers can often benefit from this prescriptive advice (the very basic building blocks of craft), such “rules” only go so far and can often become repetitive and—dare I say it?—useless for more experienced writers. Feedback should change based on the writing at hand, and if it doesn’t, this becomes a limitation.

Pro Tip #4

It’s essential to understand the basic rules of craft before you turn them on their head. The same goes for grammar rules. Know the rules before you break them, but then have at it!

For an experienced writer, feedback cemented in prescriptive advice will often not be useful. My own writing tends to purposely invert certain “rules,” and what I found was that some workshop critiquers were trying to change my work to fit their preconceived notions, which definitely illustrates why it’s important to find a group whose experience and overall knowledge of writing aligns well with your own. My personal study of craft goes well beyond the basics of things like “show, don’t tell” (which is misleading advice anyway) or “avoid adverbs” (also misleading advice), so a group that relies on these kinds of tips when giving feedback is not likely to be the most apropos group for me.

Pro Tip #5

If your present writing community isn’t meeting your writing needs, you may need to broaden your community. This can be done by joining an established writing community (there are plenty of online writing communities available, though some may require membership fees) or starting your own. I have done a mix of both.  

Critiquing is best done when there are certain expectations made; to that end, it can be particularly helpful if the writer asks the group some pointed questions about what they’re looking for. Doing so may also keep critiquers from line editing, which is generally unnecessary in a critique group. I have had critiquers in the past change my contractions or make unnecessary verb tense edits simply because that’s the way they would do it. Such line edits do not take into consideration the author’s style and can be confusing to a new writer and frustrating or annoying to an experienced writer. Remember: Writing workshops are not replacements for editors.

Pro Tip #6

Changing the person’s story or trying to make it into something that you would write is usually not helpful.

Trusting Yourself as a Writer

The fact is, once we get to a certain point in our writing, our needs change. I am fortunate to have a nice solid community of writer friends, many of whom are widely published; but while some of us exchange work periodically, we may not always be the best readers for each other since many of us have different writing foci. In talking with these writer friends, I’ve discovered that while some of them have one or two people they occasionally exchange work with, the general feeling is that, as writers, we have to learn to trust ourselves and what we’ve written. This self-trust can come at any time, but for many, it comes from many years of writing practice, experience, and education.

Recently I’ve been struggling a bit with my writing. Ideas are not the problem, nor is the writing itself. I struggle with doubt: the feeling that none of my creative work is up to standard. It is very difficult to assess your own work, which is why having others read your work is important. But the reader needs to be a good fit for your genre and skill level. To that end, a few months ago, I hired a professional editor for feedback on a few of my flash stories. It was a useful exercise, as the feedback was both helpful and encouraging. There were, overall, relatively few changes I had to make based on the feedback. What I found particularly interesting, though, was that the editor questioned/made comments about things that I had questioned myself!

That experience helped me to see that my instincts are intact; I just need to learn to trust those instincts and let go of some of the self-doubt. As noted earlier, a healthy writerly mindset incorporates striving for improvement with having an appropriate level of confidence in one’s ability. (And this is probably true for many endeavors, not just for writing!)