{"id":899,"date":"2009-12-03T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2009\/12\/03\/the-orc-equations\/"},"modified":"2009-12-03T15:33:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T23:33:00","slug":"the-orc-equations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/2009\/12\/03\/the-orc-equations\/","title":{"rendered":"The ORC Equations"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Download PDF<\/a><\/small><\/div>\n

Last weekend, at OryCon 31<\/a>, I ran two Open Read & Critique (ORC)<\/a> sessions. I’ve done writing workshops before, but this was my first experience with the ORC format (called “rogue workshops” in other places).<\/p>\n

There were a lot of unknowns this year; the ORCs used to be an unofficial, late-night thing at OryCon, and this was the first time they were scheduled in the afternoon alongside other panels. I think the ORCs went well, and I was impressed by the quality of all the pieces read and everyone’s critiques, but I have some ideas for better time management in future programs.<\/p>\n

I wrote up my analysis into a four-and-a-half page document, which you can download as a PDF<\/a>. If you’re not inclined to slog through four pages of algebra, I’ll sum up:<\/p>\n

ORC sessions should be broken into hour-long segments. Sign-up sheets should provide slots for 5<\/i> participants and 2 waiting list names in each hour. Readings should be limited to 5 minutes, and individual critiques to 2 minutes (if more than 4 people in the room, 1 minute each). Any extra time can be used for group discussion.<\/b> (edited 09 Nov 2010)<\/i><\/p>\n

(For the next part, it might help you to picture David Krumholtz standing in front of a whiteboard.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s the formula to determine the time for a single round of critiques, t<\/span>:<\/p>\n

t = R + (n-1)C + D<\/span><\/p>\n

Where n<\/span> is the number of participants; R<\/span> is the time to read a single piece; C<\/span> is the time for each individual critique; and D<\/span> is the discussion time at the end, when an author can respond to questions.<\/p>\n

So the time T<\/span> required to complete all critique rounds is:<\/p>\n

T = n(R + (n-1)C + D)<\/span><\/p>\n

Given a time limit T<\/span> and setting certain constraints on R<\/span>, C<\/span>, and D<\/span>, we can solve for n<\/span>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Long story short, we set T<\/span>=60, R<\/span>=5, and D<\/span>=2, and we can fit 4 people into one hour if C<\/span>=2, and 5 people if C<\/span>=1. Any less than that and most people won’t be able to provide a useful critique; any leftover time can be added to D<\/span>, since most writers never seem to tire of talking about writing. Q.E.D.<\/p>\n

Applying these equations to other writing workshops is left as an exercise for the reader.<\/p>\n

\"CKL\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download PDF Last weekend, at OryCon 31, I ran two Open Read & Critique (ORC) sessions. I’ve done writing workshops before, but this was my first experience with the ORC format (called “rogue workshops” in other places). There were a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[22,19,32,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mathishard","category-orycon","category-sci-tech","category-writing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtiscchen.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}