about critique

I have decided I was not going to be a workshop leader. I'd rather be the host of a dinner, or the usher at the theatre. I'm experiencing existential doubt: what is it, exactly, that I get from meeting with other writers? What is it that they get?

"Writers are rarely the social type, and may even resist joining a group, for what good would that be to them and their writing? I speculate that the benefit of attending a group meeting can only be measured by the motivation to write afterwards. How do we do that?"

Read more in this essay I wrote: critique.pdf

I'm more inclined to think that a writer wanting feedback should conduct his own workshop and expect every kind of response, laudatory as well as offensive. A writer who just wants to test the waters, i.e. to check if people fall asleep or look puzzled after a reading of his work, should be able to do that as well. It's more a matter of making it clear up front.

For a real workshop, one can check the local listings for classes. I see there's one at SFSU, for example.