This was a self-assigned prompt, and since I had no idea of how it was/wasn’t working, getting a sense of that from the lovely folks at WG gave me helpful feedback on how to tweak my punctuation, wording, and get a sense of what flowed and what I could make more clear.
Since surrealism is a style I don’t dabble in too often, getting a read on what parts were confusing in the right ways, vs. confusing in the wrong ways, was very beneficial.
I received a lot of helpful feedback on the images that were working and felt vividly described. Readers also told me what they felt the central theme to the poem was, and which sections were confusing or could be written clearer.
I received feedback on the title, which I changed from Ode to Ohio to Ode to Cleveland. I also received feedback on certain lines and their wording. Additionally, I was encouraged to play around with stanza breaks, which I tried but didn’t like.
When I brought this piece to Writers Guild, people encouraged me to experiment with the formatting, which I tried to lean into, since I’m not always the most experimental when it comes to layout and visual appearance.
This is one of the older pieces in my collection-in-progress (the date I probably started receiving feedback was in November of 2019!), but I’ve had additional feedback on the poem since then, and I know that Writers Guild will always be there to look at subsequent drafts. The writing process is always a joy when there’s a community to share it with!
Everyone at Writers Guild was so receptive of my work and took their feedback seriously. I received really helpful and varied feedback that made my revision process a lot easier. I love that I have a community of writers at the Guild who I know have my back!
I really enjoyed this Writing Center Appointment; it pushed my writing in new directions and also alerted me to what my writing was doing “right.”
The faciliators and attendees of writers guild gave me great insights as to how this piece felt , like a surrealist painting. I refined it punctually and added a bit more grounded language, as per the suggestions.
People found this piece funnier than I anticipated and were overall encouraging, even though I wasn’t sure how it would be received, so that was definitely reassuring!