The strongest point to a writing workshop is that you'll get feedback and criticism on your writings by someone who is well-trained. Really, any kind of feedback (regardless of whether or not the person has a degree in writing) is important, but it can be hard to get outside of a classroom environment.
Thanks Sven - You're right. Even in school, even in English classes, students rarely get detailed feedback on their work. In the kind of writing workshops where you make copies of your work for all participants you do get a lot of valuable feedback. The best person to take those workshops are people who have a body of work that they are preparing to send out and they want to hear an audience's reaction. I am lucky in that I have a community of writing friends. When we want to publish something, I ask several people to give it a read. It really helps. Meanwhile your bio says:studying neuroscience. I currently reside in NYC.
Are you at Columbia by any chance? We're connected to the cognitive neuropsychology dept. there.
NYU? great place! Atul Gawande is my favourite New Yorker author. My two favourite articles by him are the one about what medicine should do when it can't save your life and the one about getting coached while giving surgery. I'm sure you read them both. As for DFW - I just came from a conference about writer biographers and D.T. Max was there talking about DFW. He wrote Every Love Story Is A Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace. I had never read any of DFW, so I picked up Infinite Jest -- but I'm struggling. The first chapter was good, and I was able to get through the second part where someone is waiting for a girl to bring his dope order. Then I get lost. Should I slog through it or can I skip a chapter and get to a linear narrative again. Help! I've been tempted to #askhubski about this, but I'll start with you!