The Writer's Workshop

Reactivate Unit 9 by tagging what each line is doing before workshop starts.

Output: One label per line: voice choice / personal-essay move / satirical move / review move / editing move.

Teacher gives you five short lines from imagined drafts (a limited-third free-indirect line, a personal-essay small-door opener, a satirical pastiche line, a review's landing sentence, a piece of throat-clearing). For each, in ten seconds: name what it's doing (or failing to do) and the ONE fix that would lift it. You may not use 'that works' as a diagnosis.

Fix the voice you were aiming for and the specific critical feedback you want, before you read.

Output: A one-page workshop card: piece title · form (short story / personal essay / satirical pastiche / long-form review) · voice choices at the top · the two things you'd most like feedback on.

Take the 1,000 words you brought. Draft your workshop card: (a) title and form, (b) the four voice choices at the top (from L41 for fiction; small-door/self/turn/close for essay; capture/target/mask/exaggerate for satire; scene/argument/music/landing for review), (c) the TWO specific things you would most like feedback on — no 'general thoughts', no 'is it any good'. Read the card aloud to teacher; teacher will challenge any vague feedback ask.

Give the piece its first real hearing — for the writer, for the room, and for the ear.

Output: A live read-aloud of the full piece + a marked copy showing every stumble, hesitation and unconscious re-word.

Read the full 1,000 words aloud to teacher, slowly, uninterrupted. Teacher marks every stumble, hesitation and unconscious re-word on a printed copy — you don't see the marks yet. Do not defend or preface. Just read. When you finish, take 60 seconds to say what YOU heard for the first time that you hadn't seen on the page.

Diagnose whether the voice choices held across the whole piece — before touching the sentences.

Output: One diagnostic paragraph naming exactly where the voice held and where it slipped, using the appropriate framework for the form.

Together with teacher, diagnose the voice held (or not) across the whole piece. Use the correct framework for your form: for fiction, distance / person / time / access — where did each slip? For personal essay, door / self / turn / close — did the turn arrive earned? For satire, capture / target / mask / exaggerate — did the mask stay on to the last line? For review, scene / argument / music / landing — did it earn the verdict? Name at least THREE specific slips by line, using the target vocabulary. No 'it feels a bit off'.

If you're in a group: In pairs, the second person tallies every diagnostic word the writer uses and pushes back on any diagnosis that isn't tied to a specific line.

Run a live self-edit on the whole piece using darlings, throat-clearing, adjectives and ear.

Output: A cut version at 60–70% of the original length, delivered live, with every cut named out loud using the target vocabulary.

Run the fifteen-minute pass on your own piece, aloud, in real time. In each paragraph: (a) name and cut the ONE darling; (b) find and cut the throat-clearing; (c) mark every free adverb and every free hedge; (d) revisit each ear-stumble from Round 1 and either cut the sentence or rewrite it aloud. Aim for a 30–40% cut across the whole piece. Any cut defended by 'but I like it' is not a cut.

If you're in a group: In pairs, the listener strikes through cuts on a printed copy in real time and refuses to accept any cut not named with target vocabulary.

Do the one form-specific structural fix that the whole piece hinges on.

Output: One rewritten section (60–120 words) that repairs the specific structural weakness diagnosed in Round 2.

Pick the ONE structural weakness Round 2 exposed — the un-earned turn, the drifted distance, the winked-out mask, the un-landed verdict. Rewrite the specific section (60–120 words) that repairs it, live, in 8 minutes. Then read the repaired section aloud in context (last paragraph before + repaired section + first paragraph after) and defend the specific move using target vocabulary. No general polish. Fix the ONE thing.

If you're in a group: In pairs, the listener plays the target reader (magazine editor / general reader / holder of the satire's target view) and refuses to accept a repair that doesn't work FOR that reader specifically.

Give the revised piece its performance reading, and check the ear one last time.

Output: A performance read-aloud of the revised piece + a one-line verdict from teacher-as-reader on whether the piece is now ready to send.

Read the revised piece aloud, this time for the READER — pace, breath, rhythm, silence between paragraphs. Teacher listens as the imagined magazine editor / general reader / holder of the target view. When you finish, teacher delivers a one-line verdict: 'ready to send' / 'one more pass' / 'sit with it a week'. If the verdict is not 'ready to send', teacher names the SINGLE thing that would move it there. You must accept or push back with a target-vocabulary reason — no 'thanks, I'll think about it'.

If you're in a group: In groups of 3, one reads for the reader, one plays the editor and delivers the verdict, one keeps time and flags any hedge in the acceptance of the verdict.

Turn the five rounds into named, repeatable moves for the next piece the writer drafts.

Output: A 5-line summary: best voice diagnosis · best cut · best form-specific repair · best line surviving · one thing the writer would do differently in the FIRST draft next time.

Together, rebuild the strongest moment from each round. Teacher names one strongest move per round; you name a different one. Then, in one sentence: what would you do differently in the FIRST draft of your next piece because of what you learned in today's workshop — one specific move, not a general resolution.

Compress the whole 60 minutes into a personal, numbered self-edit protocol the writer can run on any future draft in under fifteen minutes.

Output: A numbered 5-step personal protocol, in the writer's own words, plus one sentence naming the writer they most want to sound like — and one specific move to steal from that writer next.

Write a numbered 5-step personal self-edit protocol: the exact order you will now run on any first draft, in your own words, using at least FIVE Unit 9 target items. Then add: one sentence naming the writer you most want to sound like, and ONE specific move (a syntactic habit, a distance choice, an ending move) you will steal from them in your next draft.