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About 10 years ago, in May 2011, I was heading to @CovePark for a Scottish Emerging Writer residency. Hanging out with artists like @RonButlinMakar and @JosieLong. Writing a novel about Scotland’s first rock n’ roll tragedy. It was the most exciting thing that could happen.
I had just finished the MLitt with @UofGWriting. I thought: Made it! And wrongly assumed it was the start of my prolific, wildly lucrative writing career. That the deals would pile in. That my work would always be in demand. Which of course sounds utterly daft. I was naive.
I would publish the novel first. While the film adaptation was being ironed out, I’d write the perfect novella. Pull together a short story collection. Rattle off a few immaculate little plays each year. Radio, telly, festivals. All up in your face. The Age of Gillespie.
And - obviously - it never happened! The book I was writing during my residency spluttered. I got to 40k words, snookered myself with a narrative problem, and gave up. I had small things published, trained as a teacher, and half-forgot that I ever believed I had a novel in me.
Teaching is a brilliant job, and I am happy. It consumes you. I wrote some education pieces and the occasional short story. Still a writer but certainly not emerging! A few chapters of a novel that I did not have the time or motivation to finish. No idea where it was going.
This year, in May 2021, that debut novel #TheMashHouse is published by @unbounders. It has taken so much longer to get here than I thought it would, ten years ago. At 25, I did not have the resilience to write a book, and no amount of residencies or degrees would change that.
I simply needed time. To be older and have a better sense of what I wanted to say. And in what voice. I still consider myself an emerging writer. I still have ideas of novellas and story collections and plays. But I no longer take it for granted that these things will happen.
2011 and 2021. Two fundamental moments in my writing journey, spaced out almost ten years to the day. For me it’s a lesson in persistence, patience and not taking myself too seriously. And not taking opportunities for granted. Huge thanks to everyone who helped along the road.
I know lots of #writingcommunity members are looking for a break. Whether starting out, or still persevering. Old, young and in the middle. Lean in, folks! Tell stories, ask the questions, find your voice. It’s unlikely to happen overnight but maybe that’s just a wee bit sweeter.
