Making the most out of your online writing workshop

I take a lot of writing workshops. Why? Well, because I think you can never really learn enough about writing craft and sometimes having a fresh perspective on content you may have learned before can help you understand it better. I also like having an excuse to regularly connect with other writers to indulge the collaborative spirit of learning together and workshopping our writing.

As we discussed in back in this post, a lot of writers don’t realize just how inexpensive and accessible online writing workshops can be for what is often really high quality instruction and individualized attention. Whether it’s writing craft, the business of publishing, or something a little more genre niche, there are dozens of classes going on at any given moment. Take a look at the list of venues I shared here as a starting point (and keep in min that I’m also teaching multiple online writing workshops myself this year). 

I’ve been participating in writing workshops for over five years now, attending at a variety of online venues, as a student and now instructor and I wanted to share some tips for making the most out of the experience.

Get a discount with memberships

Mostly every place that offers online writing workshops also offers some kind of paid membership. With this membership, you’ll usually get a discount off the cost of attending any writing workshops they offer that year. If there are multiple workshops that you’d be interested in taking at the same venue, membership can often work out to be cheaper than paying for each class individually.

Or, as in the case of Romance Writers Online, just pay the one time membership fee ($60, the cost of just two workshops) and get every class they offer in the next 12 months for free! This is an amazing deal and the main reason I’ve been able to take a class every month for years now, because everything from Zoom workshops to month-long forum writing workshops are all included in that one price (which goes down as you renew!).

Participate

I’ve taken so many classes where people just lurk, insisting they don’t need to participate when they can catch up on reading the lessons later. But a lot of the value of an online writing workshop is the one-on-one feedback from both the instructor and other participants. It’s a chance to ask questions, get feedback on your writing samples, and revise based on reader comments, all of which you can’t get from lurking. And if you’re not bothering to actually engage with the workshop you’re cheating yourself out of the opportunity for engagement you specifically paid for.

Some instructors in particular, like Linnea Sinclair who offers amazing writing workshops, will give you and your writing a ton of individualized attention and feedback that can help you grow your craft.

Plus? Often the lessons themselves are only start of the learning process and it’s when people take the time to comment or ask questions about each other’s work that the real learning occurs. It can be hard to see errors in our own work and easier to spot them in someone else’s and that back and forth between writers and the instructor yields some great lessons.

Plus, speaking as a workshop instructor, when you actually participate we LOVE you and are much more likely to give you extra attention and individualized instruction. (It’s so disheartening to feel like you’re talking to an empty room!)

Give the venue feedback and make requests

Many venues will give you the chance to share your feedback after the class or even rank your instructor. If you were disappointed with the workshop, let the venue know so they can adjust to avoid future disappointment.

Feedback is especially important if you really liked the workshop. Giving you instructor a high rating increases the chances the venue will have them back to teach again. And if that instructor offered a workshop somewhere else a few years ago that sounded cool? Mention it to the current venue as a request and they might add it to their schedule as a future workshop.

Workshop attendees have a lot of power, more than you think, and when you request a workshop on a certain topic or a particular instructor, venues listen and often give you exactly what you want.

Follow your favorite instructors from venue to venue

Along similar lines, if you find an instructor you really love, seek out their website or mailing list so you can see what and where else they’ll be teaching next. Instructors move around, taking their workshops with them to whatever venue books them. I’m teaching at four different online venues this year and I’ve followed Linnea Sinclair across dozens of platforms over the years because her writing workshops are so valuable it’s worth the legwork to follow her around the web!

Save your notes for later

Once the class is over, the learning doesn’t have to stop. Keep your notes from the class, particularly the instructor’s lectures and feedback on your work or the comments from your fellow writers.

And keep the assignments you wrote for class somewhere too! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to dig out an old writing exercise I did for an online writing workshop only to realize it’s actually a viable idea I could do something with.

And having the lessons to refer back to is incredibly handy, especially when you run into something that wasn’t an issue at the time you took the class, but is an issue for you now. If you’re a member so you’re taking every class for the year, sometimes you take a class that isn’t relevant to your life at the moment and it’s only months later that you’re like, wait, what did I learn in that blurb class again??

Make friends

I hang out with a lot of beginner writers and the most common refrain is that they don’t know how to network. How do you make writing friends? Well, your fellow writing workshop attendees are a great place to start!

You’ll meet writers in all different stages of their writing career in workshops, from the veteran with a dozen titles who’s looking for tips before she writes her first paranormal to the rank newbie who doesn’t know what POV stands for. Strike up a conversation, follow each other on social media, and engage with their stuff. Chances are, they’ll do the same in return and now you’ve made a new writing buddy!

Get your money’s worth

And, of course, one of the biggest ways to make the most of an online writing workshop is to meet the instructor halfway. Take it seriously, be willing to put in the time, and take advantage of the opportunity to share your work and learn from other’s feedback.

If you’ve taken a lot of writing workshops, what would you add?