At least, that’s what I’m telling myself right now, while I’m in the middle of my publishing project!

You ask about the experience of editing. I enjoyed it a lot. I loved working closely with authors, negotiating changes, trying to bring out the best in the piece. I was lucky – I had some good pieces to work with and authors who were a pleasure to communicate with. It was for me a step beyond the workshopping process, in that as an editor I had to take responsibility for my views. I couldn’t just say, I like this / don’t like that and walk away. I had to ask myself why I thought what I thought; and were my views really appropriate to the task in hand. A lot of that gets worked out in the process of negotiation with authors, who in my case were each able to see their work ‘in the round’ as it were. Its important to establish a relationship of trust, and given the feedback I got from the people I worked with I think I did that.

Did it do my own writing any good? Yes, for the reasons above. Editing is a very different skill from writing, but helps to sharpen one’s eye and refine one’s sensibilities. But you have to be willing to take on the process of negotiating with people who may not share your views, at least in the first instance. There’s no hiding!

Some sobering words, Nick. I wonder, how did you find the experience of editing an anthology? Did it have a positive impact on your writing? It’s the type of project I’ve been tempted to get involved in but have made myself resist, on the grounds that it’s crazy to be involved in everything!

Kate, you sound as if you’ve got a great balance. Just in case you needed consolation about neglected household duties you might enjoy this classic clip from ‘Withnail and I’, embedded on Tom Vowler’s blog post:
http://oldenoughnovel.blogspot.com/2010/02/dont-attempt-anything-without-gloves.html

Ryan, you’re right. As ever.

Federay, thanks for your wise and kind words. Is it true it was your last time in Brum? I’m really sad about that. Good luck with your book – can’t wait to read it. Do you have a working title?
Fiona xx
P.S. Will you bequeath me your yellow gloves?

Nice upbeat and sociable blog. Keep it up. Hurrah!

I’d query whether collaborative work is a distraction from writing per se. Novel writing is a solitary business; but when I’ve scripted animations or comic strips, I’ve written in collaboration with other artists. Not all writing is fiction writing, and not all formats are served well by sitting in a lonely garret.

The internet poses bigger problems for me. A few days without a connection saw my productivity go up quite a bit. It might be time for me to cut the cable, at least on week days.

You press a number of buttons in your blog – your best to date, imo.
The truth of the matter is that writing requires dedication and hard work. And certain opportunites and resources. Many failures, little certainty of success. It takes a certain kind of person to do it. Leaving aside questions of talent, you have to be willing, as I think Will Self said in the Guardian recently, to submit yourself to long periods of solitary confinement. Its a lonely job, and if you can’t hack that, don’t apply. It also involves a certain relationship with the world. A distance. Writers should never belong to anything. They should be the grit in the oyster. Difficult. Awkward. Outsiders.

There’s a huge demand for creative writing courses. In our society, writers are like priests. We don’t on the whole belive in organised religion, but we do believe in art, and in particular the word. We also live in a society in which, thanks largely to the internet, everyone can claim attention through the word with the minimum effort. We can all be writers for a few minutes. Result: the triumph of opinion over knowledge. Nobody need submit themselves to the long years of hard work and study needed to master a subject, or to create a work of art.

I wonder how many times I have heard in the course of my time at the NAW students say, I’ve not done much writing lately..? I’ve said it myself. Yet much effort goes into talking about writing, and to chat about this or that opportunity, or just chat. It’s lovely, but its not the real thing.

The thing about a creative writing course is that it doesn’t matter if you succeed or not. Its not like training to be, say, a nurse or a pilot, or a lorry driver. The job of writing for a living does not require you to hold any qualifications (arguably journalism is an exception, but creative writing courses include none of the emphasis on productivity that journalism courses do).

Of course there are some people who come on creative writing courses who do have the stuff that writers are made of, and there are useful things to be gained from the best courses if you are that sort. But these people probably will be writers anyway. Whether what they will write will be as good is a different question.

Meanwhile, the courses attract large numbers of hopeful would-be writers who for a while and a fee can tell themselves they are what they want to be. Some will succeed. Most won’t.

It is clear from the NAW experience that the promised links between the course and The Industry don’t really exist. There are no short cuts. It still depends on talent, hard work, sacrifice, contacts, and luck. Oh, and having something to say. Everything else follows from that.