Part #3 of our chat with author Amy T. Matthews! LUV: Many people dream about being a writer. What is the one thing you wish you had known when you started your career? Amy: That there’s no need to rush, because there’s no expiry date on creativity or careers, at least not in this job. I felt an incredible sense of pressure to publish and was terribly anxious about how to navigate finding an agent and reaching an editor, and I see my students (whether they’re twenty or seventy) feeling the same way. I got a great piece of advice when I was an aspiring author; it came from a friend of mine who was a published, award-winning romance writer. She said, “Assume you’ll be published, then you can enjoy this bit.” Before you publish can be a fertile and fun time, where you’re learning your craft, out of the public eye, when you can try things and experiment. If you assume one day it will all work out, and that you’ll have the publishing contracts and career you want, then you can enjoy the moment, without feeling like there’s a ticking clock. Because in the end, it’s always about the writing. We write because we love to write, and we have stories to tell. And you don’t need a publishing contract to write. You just need a computer, or a pen, or a typewriter, or something to dictate to (however you write best). The stories are there to be told, no matter whether you publish or not. And once that pressure and anxiety about the future is eased, the stories flow much better.

Posted by LUV Team at 2023-05-24 14:00:02 UTC