Why Writing Workshops Matter
08/12/18
I started writing when I was 12 years old. For those who know my story, it began with a love of reading at an early age and became a real dream when my mother bought my oldest sister an electric typewriter. There, at the kitchen table where the typewriter sat, (and I was not supposed to touch, ever) my journey started.
Over the years, I shared that I ‘wrote’ and became extremely secretive about it after experiencing too many ‘turned-up-nosed’ expressions on people’s face, like me writing was some horrific offal offense, and the very idea that I could be a real writer was some crime against humanity.
So, I kept my writing a secret, shared mainly with my best friend Valerie Jean Jefferson Barnes, who not only supported me emotionally in my journey but often read my work and told me it was good. She was the only one to do so and the creative part of me became even more secretive. I knew nothing about the ‘art of writing’ but I had stories inside of me that demanded to be put on paper. All through junior high, high school and college, I wrote. Shared with a few college friends and got the ‘stink face.’ Post college, the same reaction. Now in my 20’s, I began to believe the naysayers. I wasn’t a writer. I was just writing stories for my own benefit.
A writing workshop changed all of that, forever.
It was at a writing workshop that, for the first time in my life, I was around like-minded people who longed to create stories worthy of sharing. It was at a writing workshop that I learned the craft of writing, gathering up various tips, tools, and methods that made a basic draft into a story worth reading. And, it was at a writing workshop that I learned I had an authentic talent and that I was really good. Finally, it was that very writing workshop that put me on the path to not only getting book contracts with major publishing houses but granting me the title of an Award-Winning and National Bestselling Author.
What would my life be like today if I had not taken that writing workshop?
It’s in these workshops that an aspiring writer finds the footing to follow their dreams and the emotional support and skill set to create the best stories they can craft. It’s in the workshops that the creative soul gets nurtured through a kinship that offers a safe place to share and grow. This is why I firmly believe in them.
I will admit it was scary—stepping into a room full of strangers, snippets of my story cradled in my palm. Would they like what I wrote? Would they give me the same ‘stink face?' Had I ever written anything worth sharing? These were the thoughts that plagued me, what had me changing my mind about going even after I had told the instructor, who later became my writing mentor, I would be there. After facing so much rejection over the years, I didn’t feel like what I’d written had merit. But, by the end of the session, I began to believe that it did.
I went from attending writing workshops to giving them and having been on both sides of the fence. I know about the fears, the anxiety, but more importantly, the joy of sharing. I’ve witnessed the spark the alights the soul when given a chance to read in a group and seen a new excitement come into participants through positive responses. And, I witnessed new writers arrive with one story idea, but leave with one that’s deeper, more purposed and authentically their own.
That’s why writing workshops are important. They give life and hope to the would-be writer, offering a community of support and encouragement—true manna for those who long to share their stories. If you were like me, writing in secret, in that ‘vacuum,’ I encourage you to find a writing workshop.
If you live in the Atlanta, Georgia area, I invite you to check my upcoming fall session at https://www.mjhwritingworkshops.net/
One writing workshop changed my life. It has the power to change yours too…
(Copyrighted by Margaret Johnson-Hodge 8/11/18)
Over the years, I shared that I ‘wrote’ and became extremely secretive about it after experiencing too many ‘turned-up-nosed’ expressions on people’s face, like me writing was some horrific offal offense, and the very idea that I could be a real writer was some crime against humanity.
So, I kept my writing a secret, shared mainly with my best friend Valerie Jean Jefferson Barnes, who not only supported me emotionally in my journey but often read my work and told me it was good. She was the only one to do so and the creative part of me became even more secretive. I knew nothing about the ‘art of writing’ but I had stories inside of me that demanded to be put on paper. All through junior high, high school and college, I wrote. Shared with a few college friends and got the ‘stink face.’ Post college, the same reaction. Now in my 20’s, I began to believe the naysayers. I wasn’t a writer. I was just writing stories for my own benefit.
A writing workshop changed all of that, forever.
It was at a writing workshop that, for the first time in my life, I was around like-minded people who longed to create stories worthy of sharing. It was at a writing workshop that I learned the craft of writing, gathering up various tips, tools, and methods that made a basic draft into a story worth reading. And, it was at a writing workshop that I learned I had an authentic talent and that I was really good. Finally, it was that very writing workshop that put me on the path to not only getting book contracts with major publishing houses but granting me the title of an Award-Winning and National Bestselling Author.
What would my life be like today if I had not taken that writing workshop?
It’s in these workshops that an aspiring writer finds the footing to follow their dreams and the emotional support and skill set to create the best stories they can craft. It’s in the workshops that the creative soul gets nurtured through a kinship that offers a safe place to share and grow. This is why I firmly believe in them.
I will admit it was scary—stepping into a room full of strangers, snippets of my story cradled in my palm. Would they like what I wrote? Would they give me the same ‘stink face?' Had I ever written anything worth sharing? These were the thoughts that plagued me, what had me changing my mind about going even after I had told the instructor, who later became my writing mentor, I would be there. After facing so much rejection over the years, I didn’t feel like what I’d written had merit. But, by the end of the session, I began to believe that it did.
I went from attending writing workshops to giving them and having been on both sides of the fence. I know about the fears, the anxiety, but more importantly, the joy of sharing. I’ve witnessed the spark the alights the soul when given a chance to read in a group and seen a new excitement come into participants through positive responses. And, I witnessed new writers arrive with one story idea, but leave with one that’s deeper, more purposed and authentically their own.
That’s why writing workshops are important. They give life and hope to the would-be writer, offering a community of support and encouragement—true manna for those who long to share their stories. If you were like me, writing in secret, in that ‘vacuum,’ I encourage you to find a writing workshop.
If you live in the Atlanta, Georgia area, I invite you to check my upcoming fall session at https://www.mjhwritingworkshops.net/
One writing workshop changed my life. It has the power to change yours too…
(Copyrighted by Margaret Johnson-Hodge 8/11/18)
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