Best Writing Tip: Trust Yourself
BY EVA BELL Writing was always my first love. One thing I wanted above all else was to be a writer. But my father had other plans for me. ‘You must have a proper profession,’ he said. ‘Writers are always paupers. I don’t expect my daughter to pass around the hat for her sustenance.’ And […]
The Wise Take Criticism and Turn It to Their Advantage
BY LISA CORTEZ ‘I’m bored already,’ my mother said, removing her reading glasses and throwing my manuscript down on the coffee table. She’d come to my flat for dinner, and when I told her I’d finished the novel I’d been writing for over a year, she asked to read it. So I handed her my […]
Stop Waiting for Permission to Write
BY BELINDA MOUNTAIN The best piece of writing advice I ever received? It was from a professor of journalism in my hometown of Makhanda, Eastern Cape. He looked the 18-year-old me dead in the eye one fine September day and said, ‘What are you waiting for to begin your writing career, a letter of permission?’ […]