Thursday 4 February 2010

Hi - and welcome to my blog.

When I set up my online literary consultancy towards the end of 2009, I called it The Writing Room. There was a reason for that. I wanted to give writers, whatever their published status, a place where they could come to concentrate unashamedly on their writing - a room, if you like: a Writing Room. Do you remember what Virginia Woolf said about writers, women writers in her case, needing a space which was theirs and where they could be free of the ordinary trials of life to dedicate themselves to their work? I visualised something like that. Somewhere where anyone who aspired to create the written word could be released into creativity. Having three children myself, and having tried to combine a life in publishing with a life as a working writer, I know how pressured the process can be. I'd like you to think of a door, opening into a room, with a desk, big enough to hold the books you need, some paper, a pen, a laptop, a window beyond that opening on a quiet view, and by your side, if you need it, an unobtrusive friend to read your work - if you want them to, to offer advice - if you want it, receptive, helpful, constructive, absorbed. In other words, your perfect reader.
I would love to hear from you. Send me your questions, your anxieties. Do publishers respond to you? Do you long for an attentive, honest, intelligent reader? What do you hope for, aim for, long for? If I can answer you, I will.
Write on.
Maggie

3 comments:

  1. Hi Maggie. My name is Colin. Something I would like to know if you could answer me. I have several projects on the go, but two main ones, both of which are well under construction, so to speak. Does a writer need to finish a manuscript before sending any of it away? Or does one send away unfinished projects for assessment, to be told whether or not they are worth finishing?
    Many thanks,
    Colin

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  2. Hi Maggie help!
    I am adgray (adgray@redbubble.com)
    I write novels & poetry mainly
    I cannot stop writing But I make no money doing it and so need to JUSTIFY writing!
    I have books finished and books half finished and several more chomping at my bit waiting to be written! Bt I have to justify the Time taken to write - I tell people it's like Gardening or Farming - you cannot sell what hasn't been cultivated first!
    Of course it is always the DO$H that counts and I have NONE! (Typical starving writer here! lol If only a starvation diet worked on losing my weight - for me it doesn't and I cling to every morsel I eat cos I never know when the next one comes! <) Perhaps even less will eventually reduce the belly bulk! Ü lol)
    So where to from here?
    Can you help?
    How much will you cost me to help?
    ..... <}
    I know one thing - no matter what I cannot stop writing! I've done it since I was 4yo and before that I told my stories & poems to my toys! I always will!
    Thanks for taking the time to read this!
    If you'd like to read more "The Bridge":http://www.redbubble.com/people/adgray/writing/6021371-a-beginning a new one that just wouldn't stay in my head any longer!
    Chookas!

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