Workshops are a tried and true way to gain valuable feedback on a work-in-progress. Giving and receiving good workshop feedback is a learned skill that writers can develop and hone, and learning how to participate in and benefit from a workshop can be invaluable to any writer looking to take their craft to the next level. Allowing other writers to critique your work in a group setting (where you critique their work in turn) offers fresh eyes and a fresh perspective, helps you to zero in on problems you might be overlooking, strengthens your skills as a reader, and opens the way to communing with your peers in a safe, nurturing environment.

Upon registering, you will be emailed a selection of published stories to read before the class convenes. These stories will be the basis of an in-class critical discussion or “sample workshop.”

Through the lessons and handouts, you will leave the class with a greater understanding of:

–what to consider when reading work with a critical eye, including how to identify what is working within a piece and, just as important, what isn’t working and why, and how to identify the narrative structure and rhetorical strategies at work;
–how to “read like a writer” (tools for better understanding the technical aspects–the nuts and bolts–of storytelling) and how to apply those techniques to your own stories;
–how to give feedback in a helpful and constructive way;
–how to accept feedback in a workshop and how to apply it to your work-in-progress

NOTE: This class is required in order to sign up for one of our Advanced Craft Workshops, but does not guarantee admission. The price of this half-day class will go toward the cost of the workshop if accepted as a participating student. (Good toward first workshop only.) For more information on our advanced MFA-style workshops, click HERE or call us at 512-499-8914.

About the instructor: 

Stephanie Noll taught the Advanced Craft Workshop in Fall 2016. She studied fiction writing at Texas State University, where she earned her MFA. She is a frequent storyteller at The Story Department, a monthly fundraiser for the non-profit Austin Bat Cave, and has also told stories at Listen to Your Mother, Backyard Story Night, Hyde Park Story Night, and the Tellers. Stephanie has 18 years of teaching experience and works as a senior lecturer in the English department at Texas State, where she was recently awarded an Excellence in Teaching award. Stephanie is the director of Old Books for New Teachers, an organization that helps first-year teachers build classroom libraries. She has written a novel about a standardized-test cheating scandal at an inner-city Houston high school.