John Holton (john_holton) wrote,
John Holton
john_holton

Posting this by email, because LJ is so slow

I had an interesting night this evening. My local writers' group, which has been out of commission for about six months, came back into session with a presentation by Margaret Johnson-Hodge, an African-American fiction writer who just happens to live here in the suburbs of Atlanta. She spoke for about an hour to our group about the trials and tribulations of getting a book published, including dealing with agents, publishers, editors, etc. and shared with us some of her philosophy on writing:

  • Give yourself permission to try, and permission to fail.
  • Believe in your story.
  • If you write, you're a writer. When you publish, you're an author. A lot of people have reams of stories that they've written, and they still persist in saying that they want to be a writer. They're already writers.

In short, it was a very helpful evening for me, and I hope for all of us that were there. I did manage to ask her if she ever shared anything with anyone too early (she had) and whether anyone ever tried to help her (she had). I guess it's endemic to all of us who write.

NaNoWriMo, anyone?
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