Are they asking questions? A group of Georgian writers, c. 1925
I know several popular-history writers who present parts of their book manuscripts in early drafts to writing workshop groups. I no longer do that, but I led writing workshops when I taught creative writing courses and participated in many as a student. I have seen some workshops help participants reach insights about their work, and I’ve watched others succeed only in discouraging and intimidating participants.
The difference is that the best workshops are designed to focus on their most important task, which is to help writers understand what their own work is about, especially in early drafts. It’s not about everyone voicing opinions, offering suggestions, or appraising the quality of others’ writing – none of that should happen until the writer is well along in the work, revising later drafts. Early drafts often contain many possible visions and paths within them, and the writer needs to choose.
For new work, workshop readers should limit themselves to asking open-ended questions. “What did you mean when you wrote X?” “Why does this part come before that part?” “Why is this character, setting, description, or passage important to the work?” Etc.
Carol Bly, a remarkable essayist and short-story writer who died in 2007, influenced my thoughts on workshopping. She permitted only questions in her workshops. And she allowed any workshopped writer to speak and respond at any time. I recommend her book Beyond the Writers Workshop: New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction. (For popular-history readers, it gives a glimpse into crucial parts of the writing process.)
In Damn History you'll find, as usual, recommendations on good and popularly accessible historical reading, with tips on writing and updates on my own work.
Follow me on X at @Jack_ElHai, on Bluesky at @jackelhai.bsky.social, and on Threads at @jackelhai1.
Contact me by email at [email protected]
Personal Notes
During March, I am giving talks about my books at Brandeis University, Columbia University, the Pilecki Institute, and Alyth Synagogue, London.
Director/screenwriter James Vanderbilt gives his thoughts on how Nuremberg (adapted from my book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist) came together.
Watch my comments after a screening of Nuremberg in January, sponsored by the Robert H. Jackson Center.
For my recommendations of popular-history books, search X, Bluesky, or Threads for #popularhistory.
Recent Popular History from All Over
You may find some of these articles behind a paywall if you’ve exceeded the publisher’s allowance of free views.
A stage actor mysteriously disappeared – twice.
Remember the 1934 general strike in Minneapolis; and Minnesota has a long history of federal violence.
Women toiled behind the scenes to support men’s modern literary masterpieces.
An author argues that Shakespeare was a Black Jewish woman.
Forty years after, the murder of Eleanor Bumpurs resonates.
The lost ending of 80-year-old movie lends more meaning to the term “gaslighting.”
Did a famous war correspondent engage in espionage?
Those strange medieval shoes had a point.
Clothing was important to Rosa Parks and other activists of the Civil Rights Era.
What did Abraham Lincoln mean when he used the word “cool” in his 1860 Cooper Union speech?
Resources
Here’s speculation that the decline in reading is mostly unrelated to screen time.
Writing oral histories looks easy, but it’s not.
Has book publishing lost its soul?
A critic pleads with thriller author Michael Connelly to stay out of true-crime writing.
A man celebrated as “our greatest reader” has died.
Research while walking.
Scams targeting writers keep evolving.
“All I have told is true, but it is not the whole truth.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder
Housekeeping
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About me: I'm a history, crime, and science writer. I've contributed hundreds of articles to such publications as Smithsonian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, GQ, Longreads and many others. My books include The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines, and The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goering, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WW2.
I frequently give talks and lead workshops on the topics of my books as well as on the craft of nonfiction writing. To book me for your event, please contact Jayme Boucher, Hachette Speakers Bureau, at [email protected].
Please feel free to get in touch.
