Workshop expectations

[rowens]

I think critique means taking the poem as it is. Not expecting the poet can do any better, as in a workshop, but taking it as it is and telling how bad or good it is, measure it up, and whether anything's at all worth elaborating on. That is my idea of the difference between critique and workshopping. For someone like me whose writing never gets published, maybe I'm expected to accept workshopping and not to expect the benefit of critique. But I want critique anyway. If I don't deserve critique I'll eventually realize that I shouldn't be writing, get ignored by critics, and just stop writing or try harder.