Ein Interview mit der Horrorautorin Catriona Ward:
Catriona Ward: Learning to Fail | LitReactor
Ihr Tipp für Autoren:
Do you have any advice you’d give to aspiring writers?
Read everything you can and keep writing. No one can do it for you, and the only way to get there is by failing and failing and failing. I think it’s good to put yourself in an environment where you have a writing peer group. Learning from other people’s writing is invaluable. You’re looking at the things they do well and the things they don’t do so well. You’re also having them look at your work.
I found it’s really useful to have someone say they don’t like your work. There’s something about it that’s very empowering. I understand this may not work for everyone, so you have to be the best judge of whether your self-confidence is robust enough to withstand that. But if you can, I think it disempowers the idea that being rejected or criticized can hurt you. Not all criticism is valid, and learning how to distinguish between what is and what isn’t useful becomes a valuable skill. If five people don’t understand a specific piece or scene, you learn to identify what may not be clear, but you’ll also learn about how to accept personal reading preferences. I did a Master’s in Creative Writing, but I don’t think that’s necessary. You can join a writer’s group or take local classes and achieve the same skills.
So, it’s a three-pronged approach. Read a lot, because authors are your best teachers. Find a group where you can learn from people who are at a similar stage as you. And keep writing.
