Plenary session : Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs spoke this morning about the 12 steps to being a writer, using the hero’s journey as a guide.  I won’t go into it now, most people who read my blog will know what I am referring to.

But can I just say that she was great – warm, funny, engaging.  I haven’t read any of her books, but I have now picked one up and will definitely check them out.  I discovered Jenny Crusie in the same way last time, and she has become one of my favourite authors.

One of the things that struck me was when Susan said ‘it is nice to have a career and readers, but sometimes the work – writing – has to be its own reward’.  There is no point trying to write if you hate it, people who read it will be able to sense that.  Be the best writer you can be.  Don’t write because you want to, write because you have to, that is what will make you a good writer – but you will need to work on that, there are very few who are naturally brilliant without work.

And then she concluded with a quote from Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona (III, ii):

Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
Moist it again, and frame some feeling line

Lovely way to finish off

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