The Fifth K-Pop Writers' Workshop: Moving Forward

In the span of just one year The K-Pop Writers' Workshop has turned small beginnings and big goals into a reality, it has built a community of extremely talented individuals, it has ignited passions in new and veteran writers alike, it has forged new paths for its participants -- this time we're taking it to the next level by moving forward. Together.

The Fifth K-Pop Workshop is all about using the foundations we’ve set in the course of the last year and coming full-circle to provide you, our participants, with the best workshop experience possible. We may be the only independent workshop in K-ent writing today, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to slack off. We do quite the opposite, actually!

Since our last workshop we’ve taken an unexpectedly long break -- for the last year the longest we’ve rested was a month, but this time it’s been at least two months since we last got together. There was a lot happening to our team outside of the workshop, also in our own practices as K-pop writers, and it didn’t seem right to start a workshop we couldn’t run to the best of our abilities. The team with us during the fourth workshop is still very busy though, so we’re enlisting a new face to fill in Shweta, our reviews facilitator, while she’s away. One thing we always make sure of when we choose team members is that the people we choose know how we work, that they themselves have experienced a workshop firsthand. We look to our alumni because of this and also because enlisting their help is another way of keeping them involved. Your stay with us and your learning experience extends past the workshop proper and Leslie, our new facilitator for reviews, is proof of that. Like Shweta, Leslie is an experienced writer who is currently with Seoulbeats, and we think she will bring valuable insight and feedback to the workshop and the participants under her guidance.

More than anything, this time off has allowed us to come back with a fresher perspective on our program and more time to improve the finer details of how we work. The changes we’ll be introducing this time around are less conceptual, less to do with major overhauls, and more about how we operate on a day-to-day basis.

1. A more efficient workshop system. There's still a lot to work on in terms of how we execute our program, which is understandable because our current model was introduced for the first time during the fourth workshop. We’ve learned from our experiences and we’re making it a point to improve the way we work to give our participants a stress-free, comfortable workshop process. If you look at the schedule for this workshop, you’ll already notice some of the many improvements. Compressed submission periods means longer time for revisions, a more systematic turn-over of pieces and publication offers means your piece is still timely when published, and the list goes on.
2. Real-time chat rooms for during the revisions break. Participants of previous workshops know that it’s difficult to gain back momentum after taking a week off, and it’s a major issue that we’re addressing this time around. During the course of the revisions break our team will be hosting live chat rooms with participants to talk about their pieces, process the feedback that has been given, and give further tips that may be of help to revisions. Further details such as scheduling and time slots will be provided during the workshop proper.
3. Even more publication offers. We always aim to do three things for our participants -- to improve writing skills and also to provide talented, promising writers with venues for publication and the connections they need to get their voices heard. Our partner sites allow us to offer participants editorial positions which give them the chance to have their work read by wider audiences and be part of long-term projects with established networks of their own. It’s our way of giving back to the K-ent writing community. So in addition to theONESHOTS, Dinoseoul, Asia 24/7 and Beyond Hallyu, for The Fifth K-Pop Writers’ Workshop we are also partnering with Critical Kpop and Seoulbeats. By bringing in more partners, our goal is publication for all workshopped pieces. With SIX major editorial teams looking for fresh perspectives on K-entertainment, we think it’s possible.

One year on, The K-Pop Writers’ Workshop has jumped leaps and bounds, and we will continue to move forward to provide the best experience possible. Our program works, our workshop model works -- countless writers who have passed through us are testament to that -- now it’s time to make them work better.

Nicole
Workshop Head