So I am looking through my notes from 371, and one thing that has been on my mind is how as an instructor one can pose a question in workshop that gets the student thinking, but doesn’t serve as hand holding through the process of workshop. What I mean to say is that there are moments when David asks a question and multiple people have something to say, but there are also moments when the question falls flat—this is not to say silence is indicative of some failure to ask the right question—because they seem almost stumped, unsure of what exactly he is getting at. What I’m curious about is, how we as instructor guide the discussion and help students to articulate matters of craft, or to theorize the choices the writer is making, without turning the workshop into a specific set of “issues” with regard to a particular story. I appreciate the way the workshop is often framed with regard to a particular discussion that is presented in all the submissions for the evening. I think there was a lot to be said for the discussion on tension when group two was workshopped and discussion the inverted check mark as a representation of dramatic tension. Having one idea to touch back on is nice because it keeps a central focus for the workshop, and a touchstone for the class period.
I’ve been attempting to keep track of the phrasing used to open discussion and am considering language used when beginning discussion. On 3/22 we did the first groups submissions. For the first story, David opened things up by laying out his agenda right off the bat, “Really what I want to talk about here…” We discussed the journey itself, as compared to the placid serene more quiet moments in the story. He also began with, “Lets talk about compliments, what is the story doing genuinely well?” This all feels very non-threatening and I think everyone can easily look to their notes for something they noted as working well within the story. We went on to discuss the foreshadowing with the rain, how the use of 3rd person past tense implies we’re being told this story for a reason. David asked “What do other people think of the slowness of the rest of the story?” I like that there’s a specific calling out for students who are more quiet, or who default to the chatterboxes of the classroom. We discussed why it’s important to show the main character making choices, and David said “The best characters embody those contradictions.” Also when hinting at something he hoped to discuss he might say, “I’m curious about…” We also discussed what a flashback adds to the story. These are all helpful ways to probe some of the central concerns with the story, but they also allow room for multiple interpretations. In this particular class we workshopped the remaining stories and switched gears to Annie Proulx and her use of language (ie fingersnap, landforms, yatata yatata ya, sagebrush, kangaroos, young man’s scalding anger, a fools world).
As a collector of fragments of language, here are some other useful phrasings of questions I’ve noted:
“What kind of suggestions do we have for this story?”
“Whose story is this?”
“If Rick Bass wrote this story what would he do?”
“If a character’s looking closely, what’s interesting to them? What specific details?”
“Is the reader situated, is it enough, are we too comfortable?”
“Is the main character facing conflict, actively making choices?”
“If dialog complicates or provides a slant for the story, how is it packaged here?”
“Has the character found redemption?”
“Should we talk about that ______ moment?”
“I really like_____, so lets just dive in.”
“What’s working well here?”
“How does time operate in this story?”
“A lot seems to revolve around this idea of _____, how does this function in the story?”
“Does ______ apply to this story?”
“Are you satisfied with the puzzle not being solved?”
“How does he give us solid footing, and encourage trust?”
“What is being held back, what’s being included? Some narrators are trustworthy, sometimes Judge Judy is required.”
I guess I’m just curious about how as instructors we determine the basic premise or content of discussion, and guide the students but still leave room for them to articulate the choices they think the writer is making. How do you guys think this is done in a workshop?
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