How does participating in a writing workshop make you write?

Since September 2018, I have participated in a weekly writing workshop on Thursdays at the media library in my city, Jonas.

This sub-prefecture is located in Haute-Saintonge, in the south of Charente-Maritime.

Last year, I already wanted to participate in this writing workshop, but my schedule did not allow it.
So I made arrangements to be free on Thursday afternoon.

Since I started this blog in the spring of 2018, the desire to write tickles me more and more. Taking part in a workshop seemed like How To create a Wikipedia page for an author a good compromise to force me to start writing.

I wanted to go further than the design of my eBook, “111 writing games” which you can find for free on my site.

In any case, it gives me a framework, which reassures me and which gives birth to ideas to create stories.

Why participate in a writing workshop?

Since I started my blog last spring, I want and need to write more and more.
My head is teeming with ideas, but I don’t have the time to write down everything I want to write and create on paper.

Also, the format of the writing workshop suits me perfectly: short and efficient.
I also need to know what is practiced in terms of writing workshops. I’m curious. I want to be able to get an idea, for one day, to develop my own method.
Until now, apart from my professional practice, I have written very few texts. More like poems, but they are dated!
I started writing to practice some writing games that I put into my eBook.
I want, above all, to go further in the adventure of writing.
I also need to gain self-confidence to write longer stories.
I want to feel more comfortable with the act of writing, making up stories every week, breaking down my last reservations or my apprehensions.
It’s time for me to challenge myself: write weekly.
I challenged myself to participate in this workshop for a year.
There is a triple stake:
• to write
• read to share
• Listen to the comments of others.
The writing workshop, by imposing constraints, triggers the writing itself, even frees it.
When the workshop comes to an end, I will offer you the eBook dedicated to this year of writing workshop.

What do I expect before I start?

To have read documents on the practice of writing workshops, I know in advance that I will have to share with others, read my productions and listen to the other participants.
I will have to submit my writings to the appreciation of the other participants, without causing stress or anxiety on my part.
I imagine this will allow me to spot weaknesses and strengths in my writing.
Participating in this workshop will also give me some legitimacy to one day organize my own writing workshop.
A workshop is a place of solidarity, for the idea that I have, in which I will be able to write freely, even with precise and varied writing proposals.
A workshop is a place that serves to invent and exercise one’s own literary inventiveness.
Everyone has their own imagination, everyone has their own words, and everyone can write – professional Wikipedia experts i’ve written this many times in some of my blog posts.
The goal for me is obviously to improve my writing, to write regularly.
I remain convinced that the act of writing is an activity that requires work, effort, like any activity.
Writing is sports work.
The more you write, the more you want to write, the more you improve.
Writing is daring to say, name, play with words, explore various forms, find a voice, find your voice, and invent a rhythm.

The organization of each session

This workshop takes place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Thursday.
The facilitator gives us writing instruction the previous week for the following week.
It is a constraint of words to be inserted or of a sentence, sometimes around a theme.
Last June, the host proposed a banal photo of a fairly small house, of little interest, visually speaking.
I was not present, but he showed this photo again during a session because he had received certain texts during the holidays; he wanted to read them.

This departure, from this photo, seemed difficult to me, but when you think about it, it is possible to invent a whole lot of adventures in this context.

Each participant – we are about eight – writes his text at his home, which should not exceed a page and a half, or even two pages – typographically speaking.
We take turns reading our production.

At first, I had a hard time reading my own production in front of a band.
The host pointed out to me that I was reading too fast. Indeed, you have to place your voice, without the tremolo, and read aloud and intelligible, so that others can follow the story.
It is more difficult to understand a story orally than in writing. It takes more concentration. We must follow where the author wanted to take us.
Putting a text into voice is a difficult activity. Many actors turn to subject matter specialists to help them.