Chicago Writing Workshop, The Writers' Block, 16th June, 8pm GMT

Most of us are probably quite familiar with the way most workshopping takes place over discord: you share a Googledoc with comments enabled and people pile in and leave you feedback. It’s pretty much akin to the way most writing workshops take place, where you hand out copies of your pages and people scrawl all over them.

However, there is another method of workshopping which is both powerful and effective and can give you a different look at your work.

First, someone other than the writer reads the piece aloud, exactly as it is on the page, resisting the urge to extemporise or correct errors as they go. This way the writer gets to hear their words read back to them with all the clunks and stumbles. Then each member of the group gets to feedback in turn, with no interruptions from anyone else.

All through this process the writer of the piece is not allowed to speak and can only listen. After everyone has fed back, the writer can then ask questions, or ask critiquers to amplify their responses. It's very different from other methods, and so insightful as your work is being offered many readers responses, and, as a member of the panel you get to learn from the critiques of others.

We’re offering an open invitation to anyone who’d like to come along and take part. Bring with you a single poem or piece of writing about 1,000 words in length. We’ll go through them on a first come – first served basis.

If you’d like to be part of it, join our discord on https://discord.gg/k23eX8Y Cause you don’t want to end up sleeping with the fishes.