Interviewed by Marg McAlister

In Part 1 of our interview with Bren MacDibble, she told us about her successes to date, and the kind of writing she has been doing over the years.

Bren also talked about the challenges posed by fitting in writing around other paid work and commitments, her 'dream writing life', and meeting deadlines.

In Part 2, this successful writer offers tips on finding an outlet for writing, for both beginners and established writers, and lessons she has learned along the way.

Question: What advice would you give (a) to beginners trying to find an outlet for their writing skills or to decide on a genre; (b) more established writers who are interested in broadening their target market?

I think it was quite decadent of me to give my muse free reign and let it explore lots of genres and age groups, but it has given me an individual style, and led me to do things like Clarion which have improved my skills immensely and broadly. So I encourage other writers to try to find the time to explore their writing styles too. 

I'm a firm believer that there are enough writers producing what has already been written. There are enough Stephenie Meyers, there are enough JK Rowlings. Both got the 'dream writing life' by doing what they wanted to do and doing it with enthusiasm and commitment. I think that is their lesson to us. We can either ride other people's bandwagons if we think we are decent writers, or if we think we truly have something unique to offer readers, we should throw ourselves into that with enthusiasm and commitment. 

Perhaps organised and disciplined writers could even do both.

Never overlook the short form of whatever type of writing you love. The internet abounds with short story sites and hundreds of printed magazines for children and adults.  A nice healthy prior publication list is something that impresses editors and will get work read, at least. Writing short helps you learn to write faster and more concisely too.

Don't be afraid to combine genres.  Publishers like to know the genre of something to know where it will fit in the existing marketplace, for marketing and sales estimation purposes, but boarding school/wizards and teenage/vampires cobbled together their own markets, and easily can be shelved in both YA and Speculative Fiction areas. 

The story is the story... if it is conscious of conforming to the marketplace, then it may be compromised, it may yang when it really wants to yin.  Original stories don't follow formulas: their only restraint is the need to drag the reader by the scruff of the neck in and through the story, never letting them go, barely letting them catch their breath, but always making sure they understand exactly what is happening down to the tiniest detail, before they throw them back out into the real world at the other end – where hopefully the reader will pick themselves up, dust themselves off and immediately run off to tell friends about the wild ride they just took.

Watch what kids are following, and what media is doing.  Stories are combining with gaming, animations are increasingly sophisticated, there are interactive whiteboard stories for classrooms now.  Find out how all these things work and what their requirements are for writers. Books may be out of mode but someone still has to write the content for whatever media is usurping the humble book, which will never go out of fashion with a lot of us.  Notice how books are often spin offs for works produced in other media?

Do you have any other advice for writers about what (in your experience) works or doesn't work?

How does the quote go?  "You become what you think about?"  Anyway, if you want to be a writer, you have to focus a good part of your attention on writing.  You still have obligations to family, to earning a living, to the rest of your life... who will make those super contributions for your old age, for example?  Writing and money are not comfortable being seen out together despite popular beliefs and JK Rowling.  And, as writers are reduced to content suppliers for online media, money's repulsion towards writing seems to be increasing.

If you insist on going ahead with this crazy vow of poverty then you'll need to work out how you can combine writing and working and perhaps renegotiate your life so that work and writing get along.  This is far easier to do if you are disciplined, I imagine.  Quite easy if you are single and childless.  But if, like me, you need to work in fits and starts, and life without writing is completely abhorrent, then start fiddling with the scales. 

Look for jobs that compliment your writing and fire your creativity.  Jobs that don't work now, might work in five years time when the kids are older... and writing might just have to be a little flame on the back burner till then.  Sometimes circumstances just can't be changed... but you can make plans to change them.  You can squirrel away ideas and little stories for the day when you can use them.

I do know that if you focus most of your attention on the dead-end job that drags you into more and more hours, you will be an overworked person in a dead-end job.  And if, you are person chock-full of stories, just waiting to be told if only you had the time, then you'll be a miserable person.  You're meant to suffer for your art... not suffer for the lack of it.

My battle with the balance of writing and work is almost won.  But my battle with my shortcomings, especially in key areas like discipline and marketing, goes on. It might seem to a non-writer that being a writer is a hard, slightly crazy thing to do, but you and I are writers so we know that writing is an EASY, slightly crazy thing to do.  Everything else that comes with it is hard. 

It's like the world's greatest circus, being continually followed and harassed by a huge mob of mad auditors, accountants and tax men.  We know the bottom line is awful, but the show must go on!  If only we had a trained lion we could set upon the real world every now and then to chase it away.

© copyright Writing4Success and Bren MacDibble 2009

** Read Bren's Advice on How to Become a Children's Writer