For those of you familiar with the show "Inside the Actor's Studio", where James Lipton, in a snappy-looking ensemble, asks his guests the same few questions at the end of every interview: What do you want God to say when you arrive at the pearly gates? What would you be doing if you weren't an actor? - the Writers Studio is a more sobering experience.
With one written assignment of 1.5 pages due each week, based on the style and tone of a brilliant piece written by a respected author that I can never hope to be, NOT prematurely arriving at the pearly gates was all I could muster during this 10-week course. And, if I wasn't writing the assignment for the next class, I was thinking about how to write the assignment, berating myself for not starting my writing assignment, or figuring out how not to sound like an ass in my writing assignment.
But, for better or worse, the Writer's Studio got me writing regularly, which was my goal in taking this course. The icing and the cherry on top for me were my fellow classmates and my awesome instructor, Donna Aversa.
The format and philosophy of the Writer's Studio are also unique -
1- Everyone writes something each week related to our reading assignment.
2 - We don't get to read the writing in advance and only during class. Each student brings enough copies for fellow classmates on the day of. The copies are kept by each student and not returned to author with written comments. Someone other than the author of the piece reads the assignment out loud to the class.
3 - Comments are given verbally by fellow students. When a writer's work is being critiqued, that writer must keep her mouths shut and is not allowed to giggle nervously, nor text things on her phone, like "Everyone else's story is so good, mine sucks!" (Electronics are banned.) The instructor gives his/her comments after everyone else has spoken. Criticism is given in a constructive manner, which means that nobody runs screaming out of the class with mascara running down her face.
4 - As this is a beginner's class, less emphasis is given to grammar, tense changes, and the usual nit picky things. The instructor was more concerned about the mood, style and point of view of the narrator.
5 - In the beginner's workshop, we had 7 writing assignments and 3 re-writes of our previous assignments. We can also take the re-write sessions to make up for assignments we may have missed previously.
6 - In order to get into the Intermediate Workshop you must first take the Beginner's Workshop (perhaps several times over), even if you have written a very dense book with multi-syllabic words and your five thousandth great grandfather twice removed was Shakespeare.
7 - The instructors for the Beginner's Workshop are in the Masters Class. A course requirement for the Masters Class student is to facilitate a lower-level workshop.
Now, you may wonder how a writing course full of beginning writers could provide any helpful commentary on your writing, as you may feel inadequately-prepared to critique other people's writing?
Although the students in our class had a variety of writing styles and interests, everyone could appreciate each other's writing and contributed to discussions with useful comments. Our particular class had about 11 people, including Donna, which provided a good-sized audience for our writing.
At the end of each group commentary, Donna steps in and gives her upbeat take on your assignment,even if you'd just written about a litter of adorable, doe-eyed kittens abandoned in the cold and snow, who meet their demise in the stomach of a very hungry wolf. Donna is always spot-on in her suggestions and is also available by email after class. She did a good job of holding our pretty large workshop class together.
The Beginner's Workshops are held at Wellness First! on First Avenue, but Intermediate, Advanced Workshop and Masters Workshops are held at Storyland on Broadway. There are several beginner's classes to choose from, but only one each of the higher level courses.
And, despite the fact that the Writer's Studio Tucson was founded in 2005, there is yet to be a written Yelp review about this great writing program. Perhaps a 1.5-paged Yelp review of the Writers Studio should be a required future writing assignment for all students? read more
