Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Life Happens

     My writer's group, Living Writer's Collective, organized a writer's workshop last month. We invited local author Lisa Patton to come speak and she was wonderful. I think the best thing about  writers at any level meeting published authors is that they realize there is nothing special about them.
     Lisa said her topic for this talk was hope and she mainly wanted to encourage writers. To this end she told everyone that she was "just like them." This is what writers need to hear. They need to know that the only thing most published writers have in common is perseverence. Keep writing, keep working toward your goals.
     Another thing she emphasized was that she, just like most authors and most of the audience, wrote a book while raising a family and working full time; in spite of family illness, death and grief and what she referred to as "life happening", and that anyone can do it.
      So write in spite of it all. Through lack of inspiration, through exhaustion, rejection and despair, a few minutes at a time if that is all that you have. Few writers I've heard of ever got published without trying. I'll tell my story about one of those writers soon, and share my opinion about why success in writing without effort is not a good thing.

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