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Author Topic: Writers Workshop General Discussion  (Read 88164 times)

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Offline legomaestro

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Writers Workshop General Discussion
« on: April 12, 2014, 07:42:28 AM »




Discuss the current workshops! Let's make the writer workshops dynamic and effective!




« Last Edit: April 12, 2014, 07:44:23 AM by legomaestro »

Offline legomaestro

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2014, 07:42:52 AM »


I've got a couple of questions first

1. As a writer, what kind of workshops are you looking for?

2. What motivates you to do them.?

3. If there was an arbitrary point system for the writers section alone (Let's say I post a topic with badges given to those who've completed workshops) Would you feel more motivated to write?

Offline MissChurro

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2014, 10:25:20 AM »
Okay, so I tend to draw more than I write, and I'd like to start writing more. I think I might start doing the workshops to help. ^-^

To answer your questions:
1. The thing I would mostly want are exercises to boost my creativity and get me thinking, because I'm constantly suffering from writer's block.

2. What motivates me... I just really want to improve my writing. I've taken so many long breaks due to writer's block, I'm pretty rusty and I could use help.

3. Yeah, I believe it would motivate me. I like goals, and while improving my writing is a goal in itself, it's easier for me to reach goals when I see something like points or badges. I guess achieving smaller goals like getting points/badges reminds me of the big goal, which is to become a better writer.

I hope my answers helped. ^-^

Offline legomaestro

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2014, 10:48:41 AM »
Yeaup they were

 To be honest I've always wanted that idea in general, and while I was looking into other writing workshops on other forums to see how they do things, I noticed in Gaia they have these 'writing shops'. Where writers offer to write other peoples stories for 'gold'. They even have their own economy there it seems. I find the concept interesting.

As for motivation and excercise I think the best workshops are the ones where more people participate, it's just that not everyone participates, and I was just interested why they don't want to (in hopes that we could make better workshops that cater to everyone's wants.)


Offline LittRL

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2014, 01:07:06 PM »
1. I look for the same workshops as the next guy, ones that'll help improve my ability while also being interesting enough to keep me actively participating.

2. 1 kind of answers 2 but the only motivation that matters to writing workshops is writing. The only reason anyone does them is to improve one way or another.

3. Rather than points (which are great and all but will clearly create a competitive side to writing and a sense of superiority/inferiority in the community) I think it'd be better to have a review system. It's clear that many of the writers on the forum look for people to read their stories and review them so having that in the workshops would be a huge plus. Then again reviewing every single story may be unreasonable so perhaps a system where if you show active participation or such you can have other review your things.

Offline Nairbons

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2014, 02:14:26 PM »
As the guy who was away for a while, I feel like I'm the LAST guy who should be making demands for how I'd want a workshop to go, but (narcissism mode: activate):

1. As a writer, what kind of workshops are you looking for?

Tough question. It really depends on what kind of writing you're looking to improve. While pretty much any kind of writing practice will raise your capabilities across a multitude of mediums, MR deals with just about every kind of writing at the same time. What I'd like to see are a few more writing workshops specific to storytelling in sequential art. No huge or convoluted projects, but more focused mini-projects. No pressure to draw anything complex here, but comic/manga writers really need the kind of experience that comes from working in a visual medium. I'll throw out a few suggestions:
a) A challenge to scare or surprise a reader in 1-to-3 pages
b) Write a short, 2 page story with a consistent cast of characters, but every panel is set in a different location
c) Write a short dialogue between any two non-human "characters" (humanoid creatures don't count)
d) A short scene of a character talking to himself. No thought balloons allowed
e) Adapt a scene from a Shakespearean play into modern language. Regional slang is accepted and actively encouraged.
f) "Write" a silent short story in under 10 panels
g) Write a 3-4 panel joke comic, similar to Western newspaper funnies or Japanese Omake
h) Write a brief action scene that includes (meaningful) dialogue in every panel. Then resolve it without having a clear "winner"


2. What motivates you to do them.?

Having the free time. Feeling sufficiently inspired by a topic. Seeing a challenge that I think might benefit me to do. Seeing somebody writing/drawing close to my level and wondering if I could do as good/better. A mixture of shared enthusiasm and guilt that I call "collaboration."

3. If there was an arbitrary point system for the writers section alone (Let's say I post a topic with badges given to those who've completed workshops) Would you feel more motivated to write?

I dunno. You included "arbitrary" right there in the initial suggestion. I do think there's some merit to a workshop participation score system, though. Maybe not numerical points, though. It's hard to judge the value of a number without a reference, and it'd be strange to even track after a large number after so many workshops.

Badges, though... It puts me in a Pokemon mindset. Lord knows that people love collecting parts of a set, too. Wait- how many excercises did I suggest earlier? 8? Okay, here's my suggestion: We make an MR workshop league. 8 workshops, with a new one going up every (couple days/week). No time limit for anything, and no particular order to complete in. Every workshop gets you a new badge in a set, and all 8 badges gets you membership to the league of the "region." Different regions could even focus on different ways of writing/drawing. That's my suggestion. No need to stick with it, or the lessons I suggested. We're still just workshopping workshops.

Offline legomaestro

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2014, 03:33:10 PM »
3. Rather than points (which are great and all but will clearly create a competitive side to writing and a sense of superiority/inferiority in the community) I think it'd be better to have a review system. It's clear that many of the writers on the forum look for people to read their stories and review them so having that in the workshops would be a huge plus. Then again reviewing every single story may be unreasonable so perhaps a system where if you show active participation or such you can have other review your things.

Yeah, there's always the one guy who drops a story without wanting to participate in the community and then expect reviews for them.

Personal time constraints aside though, I think this should really be the way to go. No feedback drowns motivation imo.

As the guy who was away for a while, I feel like I'm the LAST guy who should be making demands for how I'd want a workshop to go, but (narcissism mode: activate):

1. As a writer, what kind of workshops are you looking for?

Tough question. It really depends on what kind of writing you're looking to improve. While pretty much any kind of writing practice will raise your capabilities across a multitude of mediums, MR deals with just about every kind of writing at the same time. What I'd like to see are a few more writing workshops specific to storytelling in sequential art. No huge or convoluted projects, but more focused mini-projects. No pressure to draw anything complex here, but comic/manga writers really need the kind of experience that comes from working in a visual medium. I'll throw out a few suggestions:
a) A challenge to scare or surprise a reader in 1-to-3 pages
b) Write a short, 2 page story with a consistent cast of characters, but every panel is set in a different location
c) Write a short dialogue between any two non-human "characters" (humanoid creatures don't count)
d) A short scene of a character talking to himself. No thought balloons allowed
e) Adapt a scene from a Shakespearean play into modern language. Regional slang is accepted and actively encouraged.
f) "Write" a silent short story in under 10 panels
g) Write a 3-4 panel joke comic, similar to Western newspaper funnies or Japanese Omake
h) Write a brief action scene that includes (meaningful) dialogue in every panel. Then resolve it without having a clear "winner"


2. What motivates you to do them.?

Having the free time. Feeling sufficiently inspired by a topic. Seeing a challenge that I think might benefit me to do. Seeing somebody writing/drawing close to my level and wondering if I could do as good/better. A mixture of shared enthusiasm and guilt that I call "collaboration."

3. If there was an arbitrary point system for the writers section alone (Let's say I post a topic with badges given to those who've completed workshops) Would you feel more motivated to write?

I dunno. You included "arbitrary" right there in the initial suggestion. I do think there's some merit to a workshop participation score system, though. Maybe not numerical points, though. It's hard to judge the value of a number without a reference, and it'd be strange to even track after a large number after so many workshops.

Badges, though... It puts me in a Pokemon mindset. Lord knows that people love collecting parts of a set, too. Wait- how many excercises did I suggest earlier? 8? Okay, here's my suggestion: We make an MR workshop league. 8 workshops, with a new one going up every (couple days/week). No time limit for anything, and no particular order to complete in. Every workshop gets you a new badge in a set, and all 8 badges gets you membership to the league of the "region." Different regions could even focus on different ways of writing/drawing. That's my suggestion. No need to stick with it, or the lessons I suggested. We're still just workshopping workshops.

Interesting workshop ideas, seems like they'd be fun to try out! Haha, point 2 is also a crutch I use sometimes to get to making myself work somehow.

As an anime manga forum the league idea appeals to me somehow. I sure wish monster were here, my photoshop skills would make it hard to make a badge worth looking at, but i'll give it a try. They could be simple coloured things.

On this idea though i'm confused on the region part. Like say i post 8 workshops now and put a sticky saying that these are the workshops you are awarded badges for... if someone completes all those he... wins the league? is that it? or will there be many leagues with their own genre challenges.


1 In any case at the very least there needs to be some form of merit system, but yeah, it'd be better to be careful about it. Like Litt says don't want strange superiority/inferiority things coming along.

2 Another core idea is to keep them as simple as possible, of course, a huge challenge once in a while could be fun!

Offline Lumaria

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2014, 04:08:51 PM »
i like the idea of badges. i think its something everyone can have. i would also like the badges to be as neat and simple as the ones in POkemon or the original Pokemon Gold and silver.

i think we should make certain challenges. but general ones.
Stop playing victim....you know what you did.

Offline Thy Obsessive Freak

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2014, 04:21:10 PM »
Sorry haven't read most things here, I'm so dead tired due to the low blood count thanks to the chemo side effect. (Sorry if I'm complaining to, but complaining helps and I figure you'd guys would want to help me in my hour of need by letting me complain :) )
But I do like the badge idea and the other thing... I forgot. One thing a top writing site does (Forgot their name... they're really well known... really well know) is if you want to put up any of your work, you first have to do at least two feedbacks that fit their criteria. Some form of system like that could work, but I'm more just trying to see if I've got everything being discussed.
Anyways as for the questions.

1. Just a community really, where we just share and talk about each other's work.

2. Just like sharing my work and reading other people's work.. that I like

3. Already answered.

Offline Coryn

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2014, 04:50:34 PM »
I'm pretty sure it's writers.com that has that feedback clause so to speak.

Will review stories upon request. My latest arc: http://goo.gl/KYgsfF

Offline legomaestro

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2014, 04:55:10 PM »
I think it's more like you get community points for reviewing? I'm not sure if they enforce it just yet.

Man I haven't visited that site in ages.

i like the idea of badges. i think its something everyone can have. i would also like the badges to be as neat and simple as the ones in POkemon or the original Pokemon Gold and silver.

i think we should make certain challenges. but general ones.

That would work too, I must get references and bootleg something at least, or find an artist willing to do that.  General writing challenges meaning  e.g "Write 400 word romance story" ?

Sorry haven't read most things here, I'm so dead tired due to the low blood count thanks to the chemo side effect. (Sorry if I'm complaining to, but complaining helps and I figure you'd guys would want to help me in my hour of need by letting me complain :) )
But I do like the badge idea and the other thing... I forgot. One thing a top writing site does (Forgot their name... they're really well known... really well know) is if you want to put up any of your work, you first have to do at least two feedbacks that fit their criteria. Some form of system like that could work, but I'm more just trying to see if I've got everything being discussed.
Anyways as for the questions.

1. Just a community really, where we just share and talk about each other's work.

2. Just like sharing my work and reading other people's work.. that I like

3. Already answered.

Guess the questions are sort of reduntant haha.

But I do know of that 'review if you want a review' system. On deviantart there's a writing group that does that. I don't want to enforce that here though, but at least remind people that it may go a long way in helping getting feedback on their stories.


EDIT: Chemo sounds rough man hang in there
« Last Edit: April 12, 2014, 04:58:36 PM by legomaestro »

Offline Thy Obsessive Freak

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #11 on: April 12, 2014, 04:57:40 PM »
I'm pretty sure it's writers.com that has that feedback clause so to speak.

That's the one! Knew it was that well known.

Offline Nairbons

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #12 on: April 12, 2014, 05:18:41 PM »
The "regions" bit was another way of talking about what medium you might want to dabble in. Maybe one for writing straight prose, one for writing comics, one for poetry(?), and all types of art stuff. No particular "all 8 badges, the elite 4, then the champ" system, but just a "Hey, you! Collect 'em all" system.

@Obsessive Freak: Don't worry about it, man! I'm pretty sure "having cancer" is like a social get-out-of-jail-free card. Maybe you'll get sick of people treating you with kid gloves, but it's there all the same. We're all rooting for you!

Offline legomaestro

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #13 on: April 12, 2014, 05:22:45 PM »
Ah, that makes it clearer. Downloading a pokemon rom now ahaha. Looks like i'll get into gameboy games for a while

Offline codenametukaioo7

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Re: Writers Workshop General Discussion
« Reply #14 on: April 13, 2014, 06:41:20 AM »
My opinion:-

1. Workshop on different genes and topic.

For example, a person is good in action but not in romance so he/she can sharp his/her skill in romance workshop and vise verse. Also a workshop on character creation, world creation, scene creation, etc.

2. Fun workshop if you write the introduction or rules of workshop in such a way which sound gummy then it may unmotivated people while if you like in funny way by cracking some jokes then might a lot of people do it. However, if people have the will to do it and it they think this workshop will benefit them then they will do it despite the way you write it.

3. No comment.