Writing workshops are not for everyone, but if you can find a teacher that inspires you, the workshop can be exhilirating. Has anyone in the Hubskiverse ever been to a writing workshop? If it was good, what made it good?
I missed that in 2002 - wow Nick Cage, Tilda Swinton, Meryl Streep... thx I'll check it out. Also congrats on teaming up with theadvancedapes - literature philosophy AND science!!
Chris Cooper, too. Its a masterful showcase of what a screenplay can be. Its a fictional autobiography (or partially fictional, we don't ever really know) of the screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, and, in my opinion, his best movie (if you're not familiar, his other movies are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche, probably others that I'm forgetting). He's a brilliant writer, and in Adaptation, he tells the story of struggling to write. Its awesome.
Hopefully we will get to read b_b's thoughts on consciousness soon.
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!