Hey Devon - new reader here working through your stuff.
Just gotta say that you do a great job of articulating the mind of a writer, while incorporating helpful ideas to work through all the challenges. Many others only do 1 of the 2.
I so agree about not workshopping pieces of the novel in an MFA program. Unfortunately, since I was ONLY working on my novel from my second semester on, I had nothing else to workshop (or, at least, it felt that way) and so I grudgingly brought in the first 20 pp. of my novel every workshop for the last four semesters of the program. Not only was it useless, it was actively discouraging. But I felt like I had to use my novel as my workshop piece because that's what I wanted to work on during the semester, and the faculty based their decisions on workshop pieces, etc., etc. Big sigh!
Right, the WW program makes it kind of impossible to turn in anything else, given that advisors choose whom to work with from our workshop materials. Even as a participant I found those novel workshops frustrating. The discussion would always go down inane rabbit holes about plausibility or future plot points... I would love to think of a way that workshops could work better for novels, but I think it hinges on people reading the whole book!
Hey Devon - new reader here working through your stuff.
Just gotta say that you do a great job of articulating the mind of a writer, while incorporating helpful ideas to work through all the challenges. Many others only do 1 of the 2.
Just wanted to pause and send my thanks. Cheers.
I so agree about not workshopping pieces of the novel in an MFA program. Unfortunately, since I was ONLY working on my novel from my second semester on, I had nothing else to workshop (or, at least, it felt that way) and so I grudgingly brought in the first 20 pp. of my novel every workshop for the last four semesters of the program. Not only was it useless, it was actively discouraging. But I felt like I had to use my novel as my workshop piece because that's what I wanted to work on during the semester, and the faculty based their decisions on workshop pieces, etc., etc. Big sigh!
Right, the WW program makes it kind of impossible to turn in anything else, given that advisors choose whom to work with from our workshop materials. Even as a participant I found those novel workshops frustrating. The discussion would always go down inane rabbit holes about plausibility or future plot points... I would love to think of a way that workshops could work better for novels, but I think it hinges on people reading the whole book!