With the writers festival in the rear view mirror and time to reflect upon and digest the torrent of information I gathered during the whirlwind weekend in late August, it is time to do a quick write-up regarding what may have been overlooked as the most beneficial part of the entire event - even if it is only specifically for me.
During the writers festival many big names appeared on the docket: Isabel Carmody; Peter Singer; James Moloney and Di Morrisey to name a few, as you can imagine the events held with these guests were the most popular of the events. Whilst it was definitely beneficial to hear Di talk about the way she studies a location before she puts it into her book, or how James spent much of his time as a librarian listening to the way kids spoke so that he could better emulate that in his own young adult writing, there was something that the veterans of writing did not speak of that was much more beneficial to young and aspiring writers.
It is okay to fail.
The wisdom came from Kate Mildenhall, author of one published book, which at the time hadn't even been released for sale yet. Late in the evening after a long day of sessions this was the first time my interest had really been taken from me.
'Sometimes the stuff you write will be awful, and that's okay. You just have to get it down.'
Gabrielle Tozer shared a similar sentiment:
'A lot of the stuff I write is poo when I first write it, but I can always go back and fix it.'
As much as hearing from the people who have been successful for longer than I've been alive is helpful, and as inspirational as some of their stories are, it is much more relatable to hear stories of failure and the difficulty of getting anything done.
The hidden benefit of a writer's festival isn't getting to see super successful people talk about their craft; it's getting to see people that one or two steps ahead of you talk about how they made the next steps. That is the kind of experience you don't get anywhere else.
