Random Musings

Tomorrow is the annual Writing Retreat in Spain. It’s a little bittersweet, as it will likely be the last one. At least for a few years. 

It’s making me think about writing, and the teaching of writing. An author I work with asked some good questions about the next stage in her process, and in my answer to her I found myself wondering about mechanics. 

The greasy-spilling-smudged-blank-beautiful kind, rather than the wrench and socket kind. (Are those even tools? I have no idea, but it sounds right.)

I’ve got a number of teaching type things on this site. But they’re just a micro-minuscule portion of what’s out there. I advised the author to never stop learning, to keep trying to get better at her craft, no matter who her editor is. And I really believe that. Writing is a craft. It takes hard work, graft, determination, and a willingness to understand that as much as you know, you have so much to learn. And it’s worth listening to lots of different approaches and concepts, so you can try, discard, mold, and internalise the things that do and don’t work for you. 

Learn from others. Learn from doing. Learn from experience, both your own and that of others. Be grateful, be thoughtful, be generous, be honest, be gentle. With yourself and with others. Writing whatever comes to you is simple. Writing well and working at it is tough but worth it. As I start my fourth novel, it was a perfectly timed reminder. 

Off to Spain. It’s time to write.