If you’re a facilitator who participated in offering one or more WAW workshops and came to the celebration party, please feel free to post your writing using the comment box below. We’d love to read the ones that happened in other breakout rooms that we missed!
What I love about WAW – this year and every year: The way it brings AWA together as a vibrant creative community — to design their workshops, to share and experiment with those workshops, to write together. I connect during WAW with writers that I haven’t seen during the LAST WAW, and that makes me happy. For myself, what I love about WAW as a facilitator is how this gives me a chance to pause and reflect on what I might create as a new offering for WAW itself, but also how that might tie in to what I want to create as a longer offering in my own practice later. It gives me a chance to experiment with workshop focus and content and also to gauge interest and reaction. And as a participant, I LOVE the chance to write in the AWA method with other facilitators. It’s such a gift to be facilitated myself. That often doesn’t happen for me throughout the year — I get too busy, or offerings don’t line up with my schedule — especially ongoing, multi week offerings. But I hold space in February — as much as I can — so that I can dip in like a hummingbird and sample the sweetness of these AWA spaces, and learn from and admire the techniques of other leaders. There are so many writing workshops out in the world, but inevitably they are uncomfortable spaces for me, after being held in the method in our workshops. So what a treat to be able to sample these.
The Handbook was fantastic this year — I bookmarked it and returned to it over and over during the times I was offering my WAW spaces. I loved the submission party. Again and again — I find these co creation spaces so supportive of me with my crazy schedule — for writing, but also for doing the admin work necessary for my own business process.
I wonder what would happen if we had a deadline to get our workshops into WAW by two weeks before February 1 — that might give a better distribution over the month and more people chances for their workshops to fill. But basically I have no suggestions – it was a well oiled machine!
What I loved was the willingness of participants to dive into prompts with both feet (hands?). Surprising, because some of these writers were new to me. I offered some themed workshops for the first time and was delighted at how seamless they were in terms of engagement. Of course, listening to the chorus of unique voices is always a deep pleasure.
I generally offer non-themed workshops because my usual participants write very differently – ie: poetry, scenes for their WIP, memoir, etc. so I invariably keep my prompts open-ended, but this showed me that both are viable.
It was sweet to have a mix of those who’d written with me in past WAW offerings, new writers, and familiar faces.
Since few participants join my regular workshops post WAW, (even though I share my info) – In the future I may offer one guest spot or a discount in a Write Your Way In workshop.
We might want to mention that attending a pre-WAW info session will give them an opportunity to attend to any potential tech glitches or issues. Also we might suggest that having a buddy, even if you’re a seasoned facilitator is a good idea in case your tech fails.
One of the most helpful suggestions for me was to give the workshop a theme. Sue’s Write Strategy workshop is so fabulous in connecting what I want and need as a writer with things I’m good at and interested in, and how I can bundle that into a creatively inspiring and supportive writing workshop. The process for submitting workshops was so easy, I submitted another one after a middle-of-the-night insomnia brainwave. My workshop groups were terrific. I love that many AWA people attend to show how we work together. The writing was stunning and always inspires me. I attended a few workshops outside my typical writing genre that nudged me out of my comfort zone in the most wonderful way. It was so heartening to see the AWA community come together to support the organization and each other, especially in this time of upheaval in the world. AWA is such a nourishing haven of goodness and creativity. I am so grateful for everything everyone does to create that caring community.
My suggestion is that we investigate ways to automate some of the work Katie does manually, so she is supported and has more time to enjoy WAW.