Another Writing Workshop Completed

I love holding writing workshops. There is no better way of sharing the love of the written word than to encourage budding writers to take a leap of faith and burst into print themselves.

During the last two weekends I have spent time with a couple of wonderful ladies who I believe will soon be crafting their own stories. I thank them for their attention and their enthusiasm.

Not many of us have been gifted with the talent to burst into print with what could end up a best selling novel without some sort of training. I would guess over 99% of us writers slowly learn our trade by reading and writing almost every day. We attend workshops and conferences. We talk with other writers. We study our craft anywhere and anyway we can in the expectation our writing ability will improve.

I have designed a writing workshop for absolute beginners. People who dream of writing but are uncertain how to actually start. These are the people I wish to encourage. People who have stories floating around inside their heads but don’t know how to convert them to the written word. I want to share with them that the hardest part of getting started as a writer is to write their first sentence. I regularly share one of my favourite sayings – “you can’t edit a blank page” – to suggest it doesn’t matter what a first draft turns out like. Writing the story is what is important at this stage.

Not only do I get a real buzz from helping others embark on their own writing journey, I also get the opportunity to spend time with people interested in writing. With writing being such a solitary profession, it is great to have an opportunity to chat for hours with others who share the same interest. No matter how supportive your friends and family might be to your choice of career, they aren’t likely to want to talk for hours about the nitty gritty of crafting a story.

One of the ladies on my very first workshop has published her first story. As yet I’m not sure if its what she worked on during my workshop or not, but that doesn’t matter. What matters to me is that I might have been able to given her a few insights which has helped her achieve a dream.