This article presents the experience and emotional responses of the two authors and the content of the Writing Workshop Manual that they created for the Caretta Community Center in McDowell County, West Virginia. Their technique shows not only the contrast of their private and public personas but also some of the outsider/insider dialogue that goes on whenever outsiders--well-meaning academics, church workers, or social service providers--decide to fix something that Appalachian insiders would maintain was not broken.