Response to Authors

Word Count: 563

I personally found the meeting with authors Daisy Johnson and Rebecca Schiff to be extremely interesting and surprisingly entertaining. We started the meeting with an introduction to Daisy Johnson in her oxford study. She is a self-proclaimed horror writer and the author of a work named Fen, which came out about two years ago. She gave the audience several tips on writing as a profession – for example be cautions writers to be patient with the process. She explained how it took her about ten years to actually get published and that each time she works on a piece, she has to take her time. She encouraged us to “read outside of your comfort zone and go outside of your interests,” – which I think is extremely solid advice when it comes to perfecting any craft really. She also encouraged us to show other people our writing so that new pairs of eyes could take a look and give necessary feedback – also solid advice.

Prompt:

“I had come back and it was just the way I left it” – or was it? I remember the trees hanging the way they are now, seemingly weighed down and depressed. I remember the air being this crisp and the sounds that echo around me here. I love this forest. I love the smell of the pine and the sound of the leaves crushing under my foot. I even love the competitive squawks the squirrels make back and forth, and hearing the borderline unsettling sounds made by random creatures in the background. Its all so refreshing; it centers me. This place makes me feel alive; it reminds me that I am whole. What I don’t remember is the trash all over the place, or what used to be a clear river being this faint yellow color. I hate what humans do to nature.

The second author that we heard from was Rebecca Schiff (whom I actually preferred, if we’re being totally honest). After her explaining what kind of work she did, I was all:

She read the audience a piece called “Little Girl,” during the meeting and it made me want to look into her as an author because I truly liked her piece that much! The excerpt was about a sexually liberated girl going through the motions and experiencing life in the way she saw fit; I liked it a lot because it isn't a narrative that we hear often in our society. I like things like that, that go against the norm and are a little taboo. I enjoyed her word choice but I also really liked the way she read the piece. She also gave us advice; she started off by stating that if what we are writing bores us, then it will definitely bore the reader - which I had never thought about before. Sometimes when I write, I get bored of what I am writing but that’s usually when I'm trying to convey important details to the reader/listener - ya know, the in between stuff. She continued on to say that we ought to embrace any awkwardness that we feel in our piece, and that that kind of material is usually what is best. Her biggest piece of advice was to keep trying no matter how much we fail, because the end result is rewarding.

All in all, I actually enjoyed the meeting a lot!