Workshop Raised a Cain

Okay. So today, I had to endure one of the hardest, grittiest, most beautiful, most PAINFUL things about MPA.

WORKSHOP!!!!

For anyone who doesn't know, workshop is when you bring in a piece of work (in this case, it was a screenplay) and people read it out loud, then they comment on it, write comments on your script, and give you feedback. Now don't get me wrong, it's always good to get feedback, but today it was...jolting, to say the least.

I'd completely rewritten the script that I've been working on, and it was extremely personal. So when people started pointing out everything that was wrong with it, I took it waaaay more personally than I should have. I freaked out and, for a good hour and a half, beat myself up over it and worried that my teacher wouldn't let me make a thesis film if he didn't like my script.

So I worried for awhile. And then I decided, screw it, I can either mope around my dorm all night or I can pull myself together and actually WORK on this script, which is what WORKshop is for, and make something of it! So I went to the writing house to work on my script, and who should be there but three incredible creative writers? Yay! :) With three friends there, I perked up pretty quickly, especially when we were walking around outside and a few of us jumped into this massive snowbank, street clothes and all, no snowpants, just JUMPING :D After that I came back and rewrote my script, and now I'm much happier with it.

I learned three things today:

1. Don't make yourself vulnerable in workshop. Yes, I know, it's hard NOT to. But you've got to remember that nobody is attacking you. They actually want to HELP. That's the point of workshop--to get feedback and know what is and isn't working in your piece. It's not a torture device...even though it might seem like that sometimes.

2. In direct contradiction to point #1, if something REALLY upsets you during workshop--not just annoys or slightly offends you, but really UPSETS you--it is perfectly okay to vent about it later. Just don't wallow in it. Wallowing and venting are two completely different things.

3. You don't always have to redraft RIGHT AWAY. It's perfectly fine to do something else (i.e., go jump in the snow with two of your best friends) before you rewrite. In fact, jumping in the snow gave me a great idea for my rewrite.

Since brevity is the soul of wit, I will be brief: Workshop kicks ass! (Literally and figuratively.)

STOLEN DIALOGUE:

"We have bypassed ten pounds of awkward in a five pound bag! This is TWENTY pounds of awkward in a TWO pound bag!"

"What if I were a zombie? That would be so awesome..."

"In case you haven't noticed, you are a girl. And I'm gay. Do you see a problem here, or is that just me?"

"Damn it! I inhaled cornflakes!"

<3 gotta go before net shuts off!!