Island of Many Voices – Guest Writer

The writer participants in Island of Many Voices are very engaged and knowledgeable. They are serious in their ambitions and looking for clarity around craft and the vagaries of the publishing experience. The writers had clearly been well guided by the course director and had tuned into my writing before the event, which is always useful and well received as a guest.

The questions were interesting and direct – how does one make a living as a writer? (With difficulty…) How can we approach tough subjects in our work? How do we write freely and ignore our inner and outer censors? In what ways does my neurodivergence influence my writing life and experience? (This one from an autistic writer). What language means to the writer. We touched on the use of social media for writers and its uses/difficulties, too.

I urged them to write with passion about their obsessions. To prioritise their writing and protect their creative time. To worship language and use the thesaurus. To try to finish things (each poem, each story) rather than abandon them – even if you don’t like them much. To look after themselves emotionally and be self-compassionate.

The participants offered the sort of intelligent, pointed questions I hope for from interviewers – it’s best to cut to the heart of the realities of the writing life and frankness with new writers is, I feel, more useful to them than some rosy view of full-time writing. I answered as fully as the time span would allow but we could, I feel, have talked for hours on the challenges and joys of the writing life.

This is an excellent programme, varied and very well executed by Fiona O’Rourke. It’s a big help, I’m sure, to these talented, ambitious writers. I wish them all large dollops of success, luck, and tenacity as they continue to write and publish.