Dear Reader
How long have you been a writer? And how long is it since you really asked yourself what kind of writer you are? I ask as I have a bit of a gut feeling about this: most of us decide the kind of thing we write fairly early on – perhaps a discipline, perhaps a style, perhaps both – and stick to it. Practice makes perfect and all that. And by grinding away at our chosen speciality, we refine our skills, enhance our reputations and maybe, eventually, meet that mythical 1,000,000 words point that we’re told marks the coming of age of the truly proficient. That approach does pay off, and is probably the surest way to develop yourself and your writing, but how do we know we’re on the right path? In all aspects of life, the first or most obvious possibility is not always the right one. So, honestly, when did you last step back and assess your role as a writer? It may well be that your struggles in writing a particular style disappear completely when you try something different. It may be that your experience in writing, say, journalism, has refined your fiction prose. It may even be that looking at a topic with a different style in mind suggests a new angle or approach for your primary discipline.