Write

Here's my 'this is what I learned as a writer' high school assignment write up. 

Okay, so my main reason for attending the festival was to come out of it hopefully a better writer. Jaclyn Moriarty’s self-confessed procrastination (as well as Gabrielle Tozer’s years of rewriting rather than writing itself) mirror my own position right now, so it made me optimistic to see that it’s possible to actually finish a work after a little slump. 

Sam Cooney’s advice of not planning for writing to be your main source of income was probably the best direct advice of the weekend. Even if you love it, you shouldn’t plan for writing as a career, and instead approach it as a hobby. Obviously, if you can make a career out of it and wish too then by all means go ahead, but in the meantime be practical about your situation and write on the side. 

Sharing your writing with others and being open to criticism (and praise) are important too. People are pretty biased towards themselves, and sometimes you can get too deep that you can’t stand back and objectively look at your work. Having courage and letting your words out into the world is going to help, even if others cringe a little at first. 

But ultimately, as Gabrielle Tozer said, all you need to do is write and you’re a writer. Don’t worry about being published, it’s not a verification of your abilities. Just write, write, write. Writing’s also practice, so the more you write, the better you write. Write, write, write, write, write.