Workshop Quotes

“But the kitchen will not come into its own again until it ceases to be a status symbol and becomes again a workshop. It may be pastel. It may be ginghamed as to curtains and shining with copper like a picture in a woman's magazine. But you and I will know it chiefly by its fragrances and its clutter. At the back of the stove will sit a soup kettle, gently bubbling, one into which every day are popped leftover bones and vegetables to make stock for sauces or soup for the family. Carrots and leeks will sprawl on counters, greens in a basket. There will be something sweet-smelling twirling in a bowl and something savory baking in the oven. Cabinet doors will gape ajar and colored surfaces are likely to be littered with salt and pepper and flour and herbs and cheesecloth and pot holders and long-handled forks. It won't be neat. It won't even look efficient. but when you enter it you will feel the pulse of life throbbing from every corner. The heart of the home will have begun once again to beat.”
― Phyllis McGinley

“On the Kite, the situation was being 'workshopped'. This is the means by which people who don't know anything get together to pool their ignorance.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero

“It's rather disconcerting to sit around a table in a critique of someone else's work, only to realize that the antagonist in the story is none other than yourself, and no one present thinks you're a very likable character.”
― Michelle Richmond

“Enmerson's interest is in the workshop phase, the birthing stage of art, not the museum moment, the embalming phase. Poetry mimics Creation and is therefore sacred. More precisely, just as God may indeed be a verb (as Mary Daly insists), poetry is the act of creating. The process of poetry also mimics the process of nature. 'This expression or naming is not art, but a second nature, grown out of the first, as a leaf out of a tree. What we call nature is a certain self-regulated motion or change.' Another aspect of nature is genius, which, as Emerson observes, 'is the activity which repairs the decays of things.”
― Robert D. Richardson, First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process

“When you are workshopped, it is important to remember that you will not connect with everything that is said. You shouldn’t! Don’t listen to everything; don’t take every suggestion—trust your instincts. Think hard, though, about all the questions asked of you. Are you making your decisions consciously enough? Are there decisions you made subconsciously that turned out to be even better (or worse) than you expected? Don’t ever try to make your story into someone else’s story, or especially the group’s story. That will ruin what you love about your story and so will ruin your story. Part of being in a writing community is learning who is a good reader for your work, and how to incorporate suggestions into your own intentions and process. Also remember that while you might not like a suggestion, the most important thing about a critique might be simply its existence. The point remains that that part of your story might have tripped up this group of test readers, and if they are reading carefully, you can use that knowledge to find your own solution or even your own problem. Also remember that sometimes making a certain part of a story work isn’t about that part of the story, but about an earlier part, or a later part, or the whole thing, or the basic foundation. What is most important is to know that there’s still work to do and to be inspired to do it.”
― Matthew Salesses, Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping

“Monica Sevilla will present the "ePublishing in Education" on November 5, 2o11 at 8am at
Mulholland Middle School, Van Nuys.”
― Monica Sevilla

“You can’t work with people you hate and succeed. At least, you won’t get the optimum of what you would have obtained when you work with people you love.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Frontpage: Leadership Insights from 21 Martin Luther King Jr. Thoughts

“Before We Begin
Is Your Bug A nice clean original car that looks almost like it
left the showroom yesterday?
P.S. All work should be carried out in consultation with a reliable workshop manual with regard to torque settings, gaps, procedures, sequences disassembly, reassembly, where to hide the leftover parts, etc. I will accept no responsibility for anything resulting from
you or anybody else trying anything as described in this document whatsoever – but if it works or you end up with some amusing stories to tell someone else’s grandchildren, please feel free to drop me a line. (No death threats please.)
Sincerely,
Christina Engela”
― Christina Engela, Bugspray

“All kinds of workshop, service, repair and parts manuals are”
― bigmanuals

“An idle brain is a devil's workshop but an idle mind can be a God's one.”
― Ankala Subbarao

“Every classroom discussion, every digital interaction, is an opportunity to help children take their first steps into the global community, to see and define how, why and when technology can be a vehicle of change.”
― Katie Muhtaris, Amplify: Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-6 Classroom

“You should ask macro questions and point out macro opportunities. Which means, for example, you might state your understanding (or not) of the story, list observations that seem especially juicy, ask questions about what certain actions or images mean, ask questions about specific characters, open the door to new possibilities in the plot or arc or theme or so on, etc. Never skimp on the questions in favor of suggestions. Making observations and asking questions are more about the author; suggestions are more about the workshopper.”
― Matthew Salesses, Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping

“Workshops operate on the golden-rule policy: do for others as you want for yourself. Your fellow classmates will see from your comments what kind of feedback to give no matter how much of a push the instructor gives. Another way to think about questions and possibilities is that it’s about why and how. Instead of saying you liked this or didn’t like that, make an observation about the style or conflict or plot, etc., and ask the author what she meant.”
― Matthew Salesses, Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping

“The faerie's creamery was not too deep, happily, or at least it did not feel so; a chimneylike skylight cut into the stone roof admitted the warm gold-green light of the forest. Given the faerie's size, the workspace was expansive--- even Wendell, the tallest among us, did not need to duck--- with a hard-packed earthen floor and an array of shelves, some of which held blocks of butter wrapped in paper and twine. In the middle of the workshop was the butter churn, beside which was a tin bucket of milk with condensation forming on the side--- which I think is what the faerie had been worrying about, for she immediately rushed over to it and carried it into her cellar. The air was cool, on the edge of cold, and the smell of the place made my mouth water. Not only of butter, but thyme and lavender, strawberries and honey, which the faerie used to flavor some of the blocks. Those on the nearest shelf had leaves tucked beneath the twine--- basil, I think.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales