Writers’ Workshops & the Work of Making Things - Patterns, Poetry... potx

W Writers’Workshops & theWork of Making Things S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page i S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page ii W Writers’Workshops & theWork of Making Things Patterns, Poetry . . . Richard P. Gabriel  Boston•San Francisco•New York•Toronto•Montreal London • Munich • Paris • Madrid Capetown•Sydney•Tokyo•Singapore•Mexico City 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page iii Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.Where those designations appear in this book, and Addison-Wesley, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. The author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for special sales. For more information, please contact: Pearson Education Corporate Sales Division 201 W. 103rd Street Indianapolis, IN 46290 (800) 428-5331 corpsales@pearsoned.com Visit A–W on the Web: www.awprofessional.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gabriel, Richard P. Writer’s workshops & the work of making things : patterns, poetry . . ./ Richard P. Gabriel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-201-72183-X 1. Computer software—Development. 1. Title: Writers’workshops and the work of making things. II. Title. QA76.76.D47 G34 2002 005.3—dc21 2002003778 Copyright © 2002 Richard P. Gabriel All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Published simultaneously in Canada. For information on obtaining permission for use of material from this work, please submit a written request to: Pearson Education, Inc. Rights and Contracts Department 75 Arlington Street, Suite 300 Boston, MA 02116 Fax: (617) 848-7047 ISBN 0-201-72183-X Text printed on recycled paper 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10—CRS—0605040302 First printing, June 2002 S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page iv   .  builder and inventor, who gave up ambition to concentrate on life S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page v 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 S 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page vi C Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii  Writers’Workshop Overview 1  Crowd 11   The Work of Making Things  Triggers and Practice 25  Work in Prog ress 33  The Gift 41   Wr it er s’ Work sho p  The Players 53  The Setting 69  In Situ 77  Preparing for the Workshop 85  Shepherds 97 vii S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page vii  The Author Reads 101  Fly on the Wall 109  Summarize the Work 115  Positive Feedback 127  Suggestions for Improvement 135  Clarifications 147  Wrapping Up 151  Revising the Work 155 Coda: The Work of Making Things 167 Notes 175 Appendix A: Examples 187 Appendix B: Writing Workshops Guidelines for Feedback 201 References 205 Index 209 About the Author 269 viii   S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page viii P Preface I n November 1999, Paul Becker of Addison-Wesley approached me at a con- ference in Denver and told me I was the perfect person to write a book on the writers’ workshop. I thought he was nuts. He thought I was nuts back. We were both right. He was thinking of a book only for the software world—a primer on the writers’ workshop as I had introduced it there. I was thinking of a book for both software people and “real” writers. I was sure there were plenty of books about the writers’ workshop: There are books about every aspect of writing except maybe how to sharpen pencils. But not so—I couldn’t find much that talked about the writers’workshop and how it worked. 1 I told him to forget it anyway. He emailed me a few times. Forget it. After the third or fourth email,I was starting to believe it might be fun since I had been thinking about how to address both audiences at once. I finally agreed. But I missed all his deadlines, and the draft I sent him in July 2001 was OK, but minimal.We had agreed on a short book, but I had sent him a chapbook. Then I asked the two writing communities I am in—the alumni of the War- ren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and the design patterns commu- nity—to tell me what they knew about the writers’ workshop, and I was hit by a tsunami of stories, advice, and ideas. Many of them were so good that I left them ix S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page ix mostly in their words. It’s part of the writers’ tradition of stealing (but I did ask if it was OK). Writing a book on writers’ workshop brings one dangerously close to the possibility of writing about writing and creativity in general. There are already many books on those two topics. I am an expert in neither, certainly not as mea- sured by education and research. I am a practitioner of both, though, and I’ve approached this book from the outlook of a simple laborer in those areas. There are theories of learning, ideas developed by composition theorists—I could have looked into how theories of creativity and selfhood play into the workshop, or how to apply stage-development theory and philosophy to the problem of how to help a writer become autonomous. I could have delved more deeply into cul- tural, racial, and gender issues in the workshop. These would be good things to do, but they are not the good things I am able to do well. I know what it feels like to try to learn how to write, how to be a musician, how to create new ideas. Not being blessed with much talent to begin with, I think I’ve made do with what I was given well enough to be proud of it. And to think I have something to share about the road I took. I don’t know if this book will be useful for you, but I hope it will be. I can tell you I had a great good time writing it, and sometimes—but not now—I wished I never had to stop. —rpg Redwood City 2002 x   S R 28952 00 i-xviii r4lb.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page x [...]... act; the writers’ workshop is one of the few parts of the process in which the public the other in the guise of colleagues and strangers—is invited in For the writer new to the writers’ workshop, it appears to be a forum in which the writer, infallible and exhausted, faces the first check, the first test of the work itself, and given these expectations, the test can be harsh Where moments before the feeling... can play in a workshop: the author, the moderator, or a participant Already-organized writers’ workshops exist for both the creative writing and the software patterns worlds For the creative writing world, there are dozens of national workshops like the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and dozens of Master of Fine Arts programs based on the writers’ workshop format... behind the writers’ workshop was to do a close reading of a work, to use the term F R Leavis coined for the practice of looking at the words on the 28952 01 00 1-2 08 r8dc.ps 5/23/02 11:38 AM Page 3   Writer’s Workshop Overview  page rather than at the intentions of the author or the historical and aesthetic context of the work Under this philosophy, the workshop doesn’t care much what the author... existing software In software, releasing often or doing continuous integrations means that the software can be tested in its entirety so that the code doesn’t drift off into a corner where it either doesn’t work or isn’t useful to the people who will use it The writers’ workshop itself is a release of the work Without a writers’ workshop or some other review mechanism, the maker of the work would work in... structures and devices These origins explain the reliance of the workshop on the text and the author as fly on the wall even in informal workshops in which the author is closer to the action than in the original conception There are a variety of workshop formats and practices, but to give an idea of what a workshop is like, let me present how a technical writers’ workshop works in the software patterns community... people, the raw emotion is surprising; for the creative writer the clinical coldness is alarming When it works well, though, the writers’ workshop works better than almost anything else at getting to the best work in the shortest time If you’re trying to get quickly to the release of a usable work, you will get there faster without the writers’ workshop process, but if your goal is the best work, the writers’. .. to do because of the possible embarrassment for the authors Despite the apparent simplicity of the writers’ workshop, it is remarkably effective Since 1994, when I introduced the writers’ workshop to the software patterns community, there has been a set of yearly technical conferences on the topic of patterns and pattern languages in which the main activity is writers’ workshops instead of presentations... drafts and new work, much like a sewing circle or poker game The longer the group stays together the better—up to a point where you need to bring in new people The seed for the writers’ workshop as we now know it was planted at the end of the nineteenth century at the University of Iowa The result was the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, which is one of the best known and most prestigious of the creative writing... using the writers’ workshop, I hope to bring you some of the insights of the creative writing community on writing and their more pedagogical use of the workshop so that you can use the workshop more effectively and more thoroughly The book is broken into two major parts, introduced by a two-chapter overview To understand why the writers’ workshop can work requires an idea or a model of writing and the. .. which the creative writers’ and technical writers’ workshops differ most: The technical writers’ workshop, because the texts are largely factual, focuses on the content of the work more than does the creative writers’ workshop Once the moderator determines that little new information is coming out, the group moves on to discuss what “worked” in the piece, what people liked or found effective This is the . the writers’workshop is one of the few parts of the process in which the public the other in the guise of colleagues and strangers—is invited in. For the. the best of circum- stances, workshops are where writers learn to trust themselves and grow beyond the workshop. The work goes on, the words improve, the