The Power of Peer Review
Show me yours
Writers retreats are bullshit. Removing all the distractions is band-aiding a lack of craft. Exploitive of the finances of undisciplined creators. A misguided depletion of slippery inspiration.
We make from life. Found objects and experiences are the best mentors. What becomes tricky is living in the world and sharing with the World. A creator hunkered in a cabin or (in these times – the laundry closet) may begin the making solo, but the matter is made better by the showing, and even more so in the doing.
Of course, it makes sense, and is truly desirable, to close the door on the din of the day-to-days:
“Hey! Can you pick up …?”
“Hey Lady, your coffee is ready!”
“Pull over!”
“Did you see…?”
“Fuck you, man!”
“MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!”
NO, the above are NOT the ingredients of creation nor technique. Neither is this so called-static something that happens to us.
We are not “put upon”. We participate in the volume of the World we make and cultivate.
The toddler and barista alike can come to us at noxious volume. But so do you. You are an even player in the game of unsubtle listening. The velocity of the sound serves the times that source it. A burn only unpleasant unless you choose to first dance to and second sing with it.
I encourage my writing students to create and present as hungrily as they feel pressed upon. Write with the fray, through the distraction and roll down your window. Let the sound out and the neighbors complain, for writing seems quiet until it is heard.
Very literally, having our work read is essential to being read better. Your mind is a misnomer, inclined to impulse – one day you make, the next you celebrate the previous 24-hour accomplishments, then comes the fall …. A dubious cycle of excessive artist and shame-blame for when you slack off.
Flip the switch and open the hatch. Both a risk, as you are likely not accustomed to the air outside of your own ego of artistic preciousness. You will be cared for, more courageous and creative, if you take off the isolation helmet and share your imperfect matter to a committed working group of peers and deft facilitation.
How? Where?
Workshopping of writing is what takes impulse to craft, inclination toward technique. An educational space where we allow the audience backstage. Instituting the value of production, critique into our “art”.
Read on for more on the value of a well led writers’ workshop.
Even the most terrible work has an audience.
Once you have readers, you have accountability.
They may not be correct or as kind as you’d like –we too often associate “kindness” with “compliment”. You can disagree. I recommend it. A good fight makes for better prose. What peer reviewing and workshopping your words does is bring the solo artist into an orchestra of others, each wrangling out how to write and read better.
To that important point, when we read others in process, we gain a more nuanced understanding of how to navigate and communicate our own composition. Our humility towards ourselves increases. Fellow writers struggling and succeeding serve as a demonstration of the many shades of what TRUE working looks like.
It does each participant better to know they are not only speaking to the wordsmithing of others, but also that their work will be talked on. Gives a higher bar and bond to the group. Sadly, such a coven is not organic. It takes facilitation from an experienced leader. Said leader is ‘yes’ best when an artist in the same modality as the group’s students, as well as one learned in both education and facilitation. That is, teaching and how to guide, provoke and farm conversation. This leader must be focused on specifics in what is on the page and what is offered. Structuring the conversations to actionable and applicable ends.
As my readers are likely familiar, this harkens to a frequent point of coaching: the stepping in and swaying back. Set them up well enough to move away. Let the group lead, with reason. Choose prompts and participants well. The aim being to teach writers to write, readers to read, and those curious community creators to be at the forefront of their own creative cohorts.
Not a retreat, but very much a resource.
