Chapter 4 The shape of the workshop
The amount of time needed on each phase of the workshop will vary according to how long you are allowing in total and whether you are completing it all in one session or whether it is spread over several days, weeks or months.
The notes below will help you to decide how long you need for each activity. There is a suggested timetable at the end of this chapter.
Establishing motivation
This may take a little less time if you have established a charity beforehand. Nevertheless, this tends to be a fixed event and takes about one hour. In this time you need to establish:
· Which charity you will support, if you have not already done so
· How the book will support the charity financially
· How the book will support the charity in its theme
· Who is the target reader of the book
You might even like to discuss, during this time, the desired book length. For example a book containing 130 pages offers a good model, as the book will cost exactly £2.00 to print, if you use our printing suggestions. How will you arrive at that length? Will every student have at least one piece of work in there? This obviously relates to the size of your group. What will happen if the group produces more or less work than is needed? You might like to forewarn the students about what might happen during editing.
The creative writing element
This is perhaps the most crucial element and possibly what motivated you in the first place to establish the workshop.
In the following chapter, there are several suggested activities. Even in a workshop that is just one day long it is possible to complete many of these, though you might rule out longer fiction and articles unless you have an excellent strategy for post workshop completion.
Generally, the writing should take just under half of the time you have for the full workshop. Naturally, some students will finish in this time, others won’t. It is possible to allow students to move on at their own pace. As they complete one creative writing exercise, they may move on to the next. Then they may start editing. Once they have polished pieces, they can start illustrating. Some can move straight on to design.
The creative writing exercises work well if you present each one and then allow half an hour or so – slightly less for the early exercise, slightly more for the later ones – and provide a written guide.
An alternative, especially if you know your group well, is to arrange tables for each activity, provide the written guide and you and your helper(s) wander round and give help and advice as it’s needed. As students complete one exercise, they move to another table. You can of course direct the students where to work according to what you know about their strengths and weaknesses.
You can also stop the students every so often, and point out some common mistakes and highlight some very good work. This actually provides a welcome break for them.
Word processing
Your students will at some point move from working on paper to working on a computer. This will vary according to your preference and that of your students.
One strategy is to allow part of the writing time for word processing. In this case writing plus word processing takes just over half of the time available.
Unless your group has worked straight on to the computer and they also have very good IT skills, you will have to allow time for work to be completed post-workshop.
Remember also to create a strategy for saving work. Gather it all on to one disc or memory stick or get it saved to a shared area.
Whichever you do, someone, at some point – probably you – is going to have to do some donkey work.
Editing
As students complete written work, they may move into editing. First, they will edit their own work and then they will work in pairs or small groups. This is all explained in the chapter on editing.
Also, there may be some editorial decisions to be made. If you have far more work than is required for the book, you and your students may need to exclude some work. Strategies for this are also explained in Chapter 7.
Editing time will bleed into writing and illustrating times. One eighth of available time should be allowed for core editing activities.
Illustrating
This can be very relaxing and very enjoyable. Students can move on to illustrating as they finish editing. Full details of how to organise this are contained in Chapter 8.
Students will often work in silence at this point, especially if you are conducting the workshop over one day. By now, they are tired and want to keep their thoughts to themselves. It might be nice to play some quiet music in the background at this point.
Allow one eighth of time available for this, though the activity may bleed into editing and design times.
Naturally, if your workshop is spread over several weeks and if it is part of the students’ normal curriculum, you can involve the art department in this in an exciting way.
Design
This is about how the book is put together. You need to discuss this with your students. You may well be able to do this as a whole group, especially for workshops that last just one or two days. You might allow half an hour for this.
Details of design strategies are given in the chapter on design.
If you are working over a longer period of time and with able students, you might consider creating a design team who will be responsible for putting the book together as a Word document. See Chapter 13.
Marketing
Allow one eighth to one quarter of the time available for this and consider making it an on-going activity. You will need to spend some time discussing ideas and allow some time for students to work individually, in pairs or in small groups.
More ideas are discussed in the Chapter 10.
Alternative ways of managing illustration, design and marketing
You could decide on teams for these three activities before the workshop or at the beginning of the workshop. Brief students on what is involved in all three activities. You may find it helpful to provide crib sheets describing each role. Sample crib sheets are provided in the photocopiable resource.
Alternatively, you can allow student to choose which team to work with as they finish their editing and word-processing.
Design will probably take less time than the other two. Students just need to make a few decisions. Unless you have some very able students and some time afterwards, you will probably have to manage the technical aspects of design yourself or delegate to an expert. Once the design team is finished, members can choose whether to move on to illustration or marketing and publicity.
