I attended the second session of my Fiction I class at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop this week, which, as a reminder, is also available as an online workshop with the same format. We’d been given a sample story to read and evaluate, as practice for “the Booth,” Gotham’s in-class critiquing method. The (unpublished, anonymous) story was a mess; our instructor admitted to having intentionally muffed up the writing to give us something to talk about. And boy, did we find stuff to talk about. The structural sparks flew, the word-usage debates raged, and everyone left both excited and scared out of their minds for their time in the Booth.
Of course, we all felt more free to criticize an anonymous story using such constructive language as “I thought it was crap” than we will when seated beside the story’s author. But that freedom made it fun. Unfortunately, the one fellow who thought the story was brilliant is the same fellow who had already agreed to hand out his own (first-ever) short story for critiquing in the next class. Now he’s scared. But he’s also brave. Everyone who workshops their material is brave. If you’re a writer struggling to get published, and you’ve never tried developing your novel with a workshop or writers’ group, what have you got to lose? Sure, every group has its geniuses and its duds. But if only one person gives you only one great piece of criticism of your writing, it’ll be worth it.
The theme of this week’s session was “Plot,” and our writing assignment for the next class is to choose a character of our own creation and describe that character’s first day at high school. Just about the last moment in life I’m anxious to revisit. But it raises an interesting issue. Every writer of fiction must create believable characters who are, in some way, different from that writer—in appearance, personality, social or financial status, setting… and age is perhaps the hardest to fake. Our worldview changes as we age; we become wiser or more deluded, bitter or more content, collecting experiences and knowledge. Once we’re not fourteen anymore, can we ever accurately describe how it feels to be fourteen? We can remember, but we can’t undo what came after fourteen.
So I’m intrigued and challenged and worried about my writing assignment. Since it’s so difficult to mentally time-travel, especially to the great State of Adolescence, high school becomes a hotbed of cliche: try to write about a teenager without writing about a jock, a nerd, a cheerleader… and if you do write about one of those types, try to say something new. I’m about to give it a whirl. Feel free to pass along any advice, all you young-adult writers out there!
If you’re interested in learning more about Gotham Writers’ Workshop, visit their website.
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