PORT TOWNSEND — Novels can take years to write and months to read, but writers can do their best work in four minutes.
The Writer’s Workshoppe is sponsoring its sixth four-minute reading, which will take place tonight from 7 to 9:30 at the Upstage Theatre and Restaurant, 923 Washington St.
Authors who want to share their prose, poetry and even journalism can show up early and enter a lottery.
If their names are drawn, they will own the stage for four minutes to share their creative fruit.
“You laugh, you cry, you think, you laugh some more,” Writer’s Workshoppe proprietor Anna Quinn said of the readings.
“It’s about connectivity and creativity for its own sake.”
Sylvia Bowman of Port Townsend has participated in the past but is sitting this one out because she wants to hear what other writers are doing.
“When you are about to read your own stuff, you don’t listen to anyone else,” she said.
“But when you are reading it’s as if you own the room, and the audience and you get a sense of power.”
Bowman said four minutes can be “a really long time if someone is reading something you don’t like” — but not long enough to be truly painful.
She suggests that writers bring something that stands on its own.
“It doesn’t work as well to read part of a novel,” she said.
“It’s best to have an essay or part of a memoir, something with a beginning, middle and an end.”
All skill levels
Quinn said that writers of all skill levels should participate, and reading aloud to other people can move the process along, for both the writer and the audience.
“Something happens when you hear the writing spoken,” she said.
“You understand how the story has been crafted.”
She said Port Townsend is a literate town, and local audiences can determine quality while keeping an open mind.
“You look out and you know everyone in the room knows what it takes to write a compelling piece,” she said.
“But this is a place where all writers have equal footing, where it doesn’t matter how many journals or books you have written.
“It’s about getting back to the core of why you write in the first place, how closely you listen and observe life and the process that produces the most creative joy.”
Poet Peter Quinn, who runs the shop with his wife at 820 Water St., said the events occur when local writers are ready, “and they let us know when it is time for another one.”
What works here, according to Anna Quinn, is passion and authenticity.
“If you can’t be yourself here, you probably can’t be yourself anywhere,” she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.