Signed Up To Improve My Writing Skills, Got Frustration: A Writing Webinar Failure

Feeling the need to brush up on my writing skills, I signed up for a three-hour online generative workshop. I had come to explore new material inspired by prompts, writing’s version of improvisation. Two hours in I left the session.

Because the instructor used up most of the time having us read aloud and then voting for our favorite sentences from each others’ writing, and because she couldn’t remember the precise wording of each winning sentence long enough to record it, favorites had to be repeated two and three times and votes re-tallied when votes were changed.

In two hours we had written only two exercises and the prospects for doing more looked bleak.

This workwhop was more about everyone feeling good rather than craft. That was not what I signed up for.

I also didn’t sign up to watch the instructor eat up writing time trying to find slides with exercises, all of which, when she finally found them came with the disclaimer, “Here’s a great prompt, but we won’t be doing it.” That’s when I’d had enough.

Instructors, please do a run-through of your workshops to get your pacing and timing on point. Please do a tech rehearsal before your session goes live online to make sure your slides and other material are in order and retrievable all in one place.

And please, please focus on the craft, not on making me feel good. If the craft instruction is solid, I will feel just fine.