Getting Started, Getting Published – Panel Discussion

The North Shore Writers Association has a mandate to help writers get started and get published, so to assemble a panel of writers to talk about the topic of beginning as a writer. The panel today had Fran Bourassa, Gerhard Winkler, Sylvia Taylor, Lynn Crymble and Bernice Lever talking about all sorts of things.

The panel talked about topics like how each of the writers began as writers, what kind of doubts about their writing they’ve had since then (and what they’ve done about them), the value of writing organizations and groups, and the trials of getting published.

We had a 12-year-old and a physician who’d worked with the Hudson’s Bay Company 50 years ago ask questions and get big-picture advice, and people trying to find out how to stop getting lost in the manuscript. Lynn answered questions about her time spent planning versus writing the novel. Sylvia talked about writing prompts and avoiding internal editors (with the idea of having a lovingly-titled “barf draft”). Gerhard told stories of getting good honest feedback (even when they told him to kill the story). Fran encouraged the audience to not get hung up on getting published and start small.

Thanks very much to the North Shore Writers Association for leading such an informative and entertaining talk!