Writing workshops: a combination of ritual scarring and group therapy — or the thing that actually made you a better writer? Amanda Polick is not sure it isn't both.

In this episode, Amanda digs into the history and honest reality of the writing workshop, whether creative writing can even be taught, and why she still has PTSD from the ones she's been in. She also revisits the Girls Iowa arc, which she maintains is the most accurate depiction of workshop culture ever put on television.

In this episode:

• The history of creative writing programs in America, from a Harvard drama workshop in 1906 to the GI Bill-fueled MFA explosion — and Iowa's official position that they had nothing to do with producing Flannery O'Connor, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ann Patchett
• Why Hannah Horvath's Iowa episodes still hold up: the rotted-teeth prodigy, the party meltdown, the non-apology letter, and the relief of almost getting kicked out
• Stephen King's argument that workshops force you to write with the door open when you need it closed
• The weekly writing exercise her professor assigned that genuinely changed how she wrote
• Why "a friend who loves reading" is not the same as a professional developmental editor

The bottom line on whether writing can be taught: good writers can be made better. But you still have to be obsessed with it first.

Perfect for: writers who've survived a workshop and want someone to commiserate with, anyone curious about MFA culture without wanting to take out the loans, and writers who have ever sat silently while strangers dismantled something they wrote.

Find Amanda: @amandapolick | amandapolick.com