Guidelines for Colorado Springs Weekly Writers Workshops

What to expect: We meet together weekly for three hours in a group of no more than 12 writers, plus Sue. Writers of all levels of experience and of all genres are invited. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced writer, this workshop method effectively supports the spirit of creativity, freeing each participant to find and develop his or her own unique voice. There are no criteria for acceptance other than a sincere desire and willingness to write and be a constructive group member.

Schedule: We gather about 6:45 p.m. and begin our writing circle at 7:00 p.m. Sue serves snacks at a break and we adjourn at 10 p.m.

What to bring: Please bring your notebook and pens. A laptop is OK as long as it doesn't disturb other group members.

The Workshop: Our writing workshops are designed after the process developed by Sue's mentor, Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists, to help us find our truest voice; to write from the images, memories and feelings we all carry inside ourselves; and to write with greater confidence and skill.

In the first half of the evening, we write in response to exercises Sue suggests (which you are completely free to ignore!). Always you are encouraged to write whatever you want. We are invited to read the new work aloud and respond to each other's writing with what is working.

To maintain a safe, confidential space in which to write whatever comes to us to write, we follow certain practices in responding to new writing:

• The leader and participants write together.
• We hold the writing of others in confidence;
• We honor the writer by listening carefully;
• We treat everything as fiction;
• We refer to the narrator/speaker, not to the author, as the voice of the piece;
• We remember that while healing often occurs through our writing, this is not a therapy group, and we maintain our focus on the writing;
• We concentrate on the writing at hand, not on anecdotes of our similar experiences;
• We are free to write what we want; exercises are offered;
• We are invited to read;
• We respond only with what we like, what stays with us, what moves us; and not, at this stage of vulnerability, with what will make it stronger.

In the second half of the evening, if a manuscript has been handed out the previous week, we discuss it in some depth; after which the copies with our notes written in the margins are returned to the writer. Members are encouraged to bring their work into the workshop, including works in progress. We all learn by talking together about what the strengths of a work are and what we feel may be working against those strengths. Our aim is to be completely honest and at the same time entirely encouraging to the writer who is presenting.

Following the discussion of a manuscript, we will have a short writing session, time permitting. If there is no manuscript that session, we will write and respond as in the first half of the evening.

Please do all you can to preserve quiet in the writing times. We write in a small space; writers have been known to be distracted by a felt tipped pen making too much noise! If you must arrive late or leave early, please do so quietly and as inconspicuously as possible.

Business Matters: Each workshop series has 10 sessions and costs $30 per session ($300 total). Your place in the workshop is held by a $50 deposit. The fee balance is due at the second session. If you decide this method is not for you, I return your deposit at the end of the first session.

Fees may be paid by credit card, via PayPal, or at the session. If that is difficult, the fee may be paid weekly with the understanding that enrollment is a commitment for the full series unless your place can be filled with another participant. Participants are responsible for payment for each meeting, even if they are absent.

Private Conferences: If you are new to the writing workshop series, Sue would like to talk with you by phone to get acquainted. Each participant is entitled to one private conference within each series, but this up to you to initiate.

Manuscripts: Manuscripts must be typed double spaced, except poetry, which may be single spaced. Generally speaking, around 10-15 pages of prose or 5 pages of poems is the amount that can be discussed as a group, unless the work is a completed longer manuscript which has been in process in the workshop. In that case, special arrangements can be made.

We will not discuss the work of one writer two evenings in a row. However, you may hand out as much material as you want, for private response, to the workshop as a whole, or to individuals in the workshop whose response you find particularly helpful. If you feel shy or too vulnerable to hand work out to the entire workshop, you are welcome to give it to Sue alone, and she will respond carefully and privately on your manuscript pages, and in private conference if you wish.

Workshop Critiques: The comments you write on another person's manuscript will be taken very seriously. Be sure to balance your responses: mark what you like as well as what could be improved. Honesty and directness in your own voice are of more value than English teacher talk, although that can be useful, too, if it is a particular skill of yours. Telling the writer when you are confused, when you are moved, when a sentence caused you to stumble and read again, when a line in a poem is not clear to you can be of great help to a writer. In Sue's workshops, we do not strive to agree in our responses, in fact, we celebrate different opinions, giving the writer more room to make choices, and protecting his or her own voice; so feel free to disagree.

E-mail Sue: sue@dialoguepublishing.com

Call Sue: (719) 495-3755

For more information about Amherst Writers & Artists please, click here

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