How to Have the Best D*mn Writing Workshop. Period.

Writing workshops can be wonderful. They can connect with other writers, build community, and add strong points to your writing CV.

But workshops can also be perplexing and downright frustrating. Whose feedback, if anyone’s, should you prioritize? Do you have to take every suggestion into consideration, even the ones with which you disagree? Read on for Jessica Hatch’s best tips—gleaned from attendance in adjudicated workshops in three different countries—on making the most of your time in the Cone of Silence and beyond.

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Hatch Editorial Services' Stance on Generative Artificial Intelligence

Hatch Editorial Services LLC does not use generative AI (here referred to as “genAI” or “AI”) agents such as ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, or Perplexity in conjunction with editorial work on any client’s manuscript, nor does it use genAI agents to create any editorial feedback or products for purchase. That is, it does not feed client work into an AI agent or use AI to draft editorial letters, line-edit manuscripts, or complete any other task related to clients’ intellectual property or to writers’ education.

Beyond the ways genAI is actively depleting our water supply; the fact it’s a probability machine that, by design, makes creativity trend toward the law of averages; and the piratical impact it’s had on our industry, Hatch Editorial Services has made this decision in order to fulfill its promise to provide high-quality, personalized work that retains the individual author’s voice. The use of genAI in an editorial capacity would only flatten that.

The choice to use or not use generative AI, however, is a personal one. Writers who use genAI as an assistant or as a tool in the early steps of the creative process (e.g., writing prompts, research, interactive outlining) are welcome to collaborate with Hatch Editorial Services, pending their ability to confirm the work is their intellectual property alone and does not include anyone else’s copyrighted material.

The Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 3.

Characters lacking in agency often don’t have many motivating factors to help them think, speak, or act. Instead, they passively accept the things happening around them.

This can make it difficult for the reader to empathize with your characters, often because it seems the characters are doing nothing to help themselves. As a result, you may risk losing your reader’s interest in your novel.

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The Top 5 Editorial Mistakes I’ve Seen… and How to Fix Them, Part 1 of 5.

If you’ve taken a creative writing workshop or even a high school composition course, you’ve likely heard the advice: “Show, don’t tell.”

When we’re writing fiction or creative non-fiction, we want to show instead of tell, which translates to telling our story through a series of interconnected scenes, instead of summarizing the events that happened.

If a character needs a raise to pay the rent, the writer shouldn’t explicitly state, “Bob needed a raise to pay his rent,” at least not without also providing supporting details. Instead, she may place an important conversation between Bob and his work best friend in a coffee shop, where Bob explains that he’s having his second triple latte of the day at 10:00 a.m. after pulling an all-nighter with the quarterly earnings report.

So, yes, “Show, don’t tell.” You know that intuitively. But I’m here to explain part of the “why” behind this age-old adage.

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