So let me ask you

I'm going to be doing a workshop for my local RWA chapter on January 13. Well, actually, I'm doing two. The morning session is Romance 101: People, Places, Plots, focusing on the basics of romance writing with an emphasis on characters, plots and setting. In the afternoon, I'm doing Goose Your Muse: Inspiration, Motivation and Imagination, which is aimed at looking at your writing/story in progress with "fresh eyes," to discover new avenues, to shake loose the cobwebs; the latter half is aimed at remembering the roots and reasons we wanted to write stories in the first place, to silence doubts, to examine fears, and to re-discover the joy of writing.

But I've got a bit of a dilemma. Which should go first when it comes to talking about inspiration and motivation -- the part dealing with the writing/work-in-progress itself, or the writer?

At this point, I'm leaning toward having the more general motivation/inspirational material at the end, so the session ends on an upbeat note, regardless of whatever troubles people are having with their individual stories.

But let me ask you: If you were attending a session about inspiration and motivation, would you like to focus on the actual writing/story you're telling first, and then finding inspiration and motivation for yourself, as a writer (as I'm thinking), or vice versa? Would you rather start with the general, then focus more on the story/writing in progress?

For more info about the workshops, go here.