Writers' Workshops & the Work of Making Things

builder and inventor, who gave up ambition to concentrate on life III Acknowledgements I belong to two writers' communities: the software patterns writers' community which is eagerly creating a new—and new type of—literature in the world of computing and software, and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers alumni, the Wallies. Each of these two communities is generous beyond anything xenia could predict and more than a modest writer like me deserves. If you are a writer, then you know what kind of communities these are, and if you aren't, you can't imagine the warmth, support, and generosity spawned by the work of trying to write what is impossible to write. When I asked these two communities about their thoughts on the writers' workshop, I was flooded. Literally the size of my manuscript nearly doubled in length with the advice and stories I got, and the reminders of what I once knew but had forgotten. I would like to thank them first: wrote down the writers' workshop process as we first practiced it in the software patterns community (" A Pattern Language for Writers' Workshops, " in Pattern Languages of Program Design 4), and Neil Harrison wrote down how to shepherd (" The Language of the Shepherds: A Pattern Language for Shepherds and Sheep, " unpublished but on the Web), each in IV / W RITERS ' W ORKSHOP Work in Progress fine pattern languages—without these I would have had to actually remember what we did and learned. Linda Elkin provided detailed and provocative comments on the manuscript for this book, and without her help it would have been a feeble book indeed. I particularly would like to thank the teachers who tried their darnedest to teach me to write:bined to create the most congenial and productive writers' workshops I have ever encountered. The following were some of my workshop leaders at writers' workshops around the USA: And especially: My friend Guy L. Steele Jr. kept me alive, my partner Jo A. Lawless kept me loved, my daughter Mika Toribara and son Joseph Tracy kept me young, and my long-time colleague and close friend Ron Goldman kept me honest (sort of). V Preface In November 1999, Paul Becker of Addison-Wesley-Longman approached me at a conference in Denver and told me I was the perfect person to write a book on the writers' workshop. I thought he was nuts. He thought …