- 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?