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+ Workshop notes
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+- Friday — Critical reading
+- Intro
+- Intro self (incl. “this is for MFA” spiel)
+- Allow others to intro
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+- Ice breaker: what is your least favorite part of your favorite movie?
+- Lead into what is a text
+- Books/writing, sure, but also anything that tells a story — film, games, etc
+- Thus, what is critical reading?
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+- Intentional engagement with a text, especially with regards to the self
+- Back to ice breaker: how do you intentionally engage with your favorite film?
+- How do we intentionally engage with a text in furry?
+- What do we like in a furry text? What don’t we like?
+- Notably, not asking what makes a text furry, that we are furries is what enables us to read into that context
+- Thus, how do we engage with a text that we feel is furry as furries?
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+- What goes into critical reading?
+- Layers:
+- Mechanical: presentation, word choice, language usage, writing style
+- Subjective: emotional impact, plot effectiveness, evocative descriptions
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+- Reading exercise:
+- Pick one of these two categories to pay attention to first and read, then read for the second
+- Critique tomorrow, but preview: we’re not tearing a text apart, we’re asking it questions:
+- How did we feel the plot worked? Was there a structure? Could we follow it?
+- What was told? What was left out? How did (not) knowing make us feel?
+- What type of language usage was there? Word choice? Style?
+- How about emotional impact? Was the story impactful? Did the mechanics help or hinder us?
+- Was it evocative? Was it furry? Did that work?
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+- Be ready to summarize
+- 10 mins to read
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+- Have someone summarize
+- Talk through the mechanical and subjective layers, drilling down into specifics
+- Talk through how the exercise felt
+- was it useful? Tiring? Enjoyable?
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+- Tomorrow, we’ll go through critiquing writing and actually workshop a piece — one of mine that has already been workshopped and published, so just an example of critiquing for a present author.
+- Optional homework:
+- Write a short ~500 word snippet (or pick one already written) to go through a gentle workshop, think about what we talked through today while writing
+- Email it to me and I’ll put it online for all to read in the workshop
+- Will be asking how it felt etc
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+- Saturday — Critiquing in workshop
+- What is workshopping?
+- More important, what is it not?
+- Tearing apart a story
+- Tearing down the author (Maslanka story)
+- Editing a piece
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+- Talk about your engagement with the piece — remember list of questions from yesterday
+- Author:
+- Listen to feedback and take in the ways your work affected others
+- Will talk about writing for workshops tomorrow
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+- Types of workshops and such
+- Silent author
+- How that works
+- Why — active listening, no shaping responses
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+- Participatory discussion
+- Better for pieces earlier in process
+- Feedback as to where to take it
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+- The role of the facilitator
+- Prevent stalling
+- Keep on track
+- Pay attention to mood, etc
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+- Tone
+- Talk to the piece, not the author — some don’t even use the author’s name, pretend they aren’t there (not particularly a fan, but also stay away from addressing comments to ‘you’)
+- Talk about yourself, your responses, your questions
+- Changing language
+- Stay away from generating shared values/taste
+- Imagine and invite change
+- We don’t want to over-reward author because then it becomes less about creativity and more about writing for success
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+- Sample workshop:
+- https://makyo.ink/jump
+- 10 mins to read
+- Workshop discussion with silent author, then bring author in
+- Discuss how it felt
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+- Tomorrow: writing to receive critique/actually receiving critique
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+- Sunday — Writing to expect critique
+- https://makyo.io/fcww23s
+- Writing and vulnerability
+- Vulnerability in creation
+- The terrifying ordeal of being seen
+- How to manage having one’s vulnerability openly addressed
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+- A lot is on the facilitator
+- Ensuring discussion stays on the work
+- Ensuring uncomfortable silence is filled
+- How silence feels
+- How to fill silence if it happens (ask questions)
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+- Engaging with responses as author
+- Always good to thank, but overdoing can weaken your position in your own eyes
+- Maintain authorial vision ---- everything you get (even negative) is encouragement and opportunity to change, but not a demand
+- Friction and vulnerability:
+- Maintain openness (even physical — half smile, willing hands)
+- Maintain distance
+- Feel free to maintain boundaries, facilitator is there to help, can guide/move on from topic
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+- Take notes! Can be overwhelming, so read through and think before blithely implementing
+- Workshops:
+- One person summarize and lead in with discussion
+- Try one response at a time vs open discussion
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+- Reflect on how that felt
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