Post by Maddie Kalta

For the majority of people, Friday 13^th is a dark and dreaded day. It happens often enough to cause mass panic in the hearts of our nation, but not quite often enough for anyone to realise that the threat is an empty one. On Friday 13^th October 2017, however, I was lucky enough to be in a lecture hall to hear guest speaker, Amy Alward, tell us about her career as an author and editor.

I’ll be honest with you. Over the last year, I have spent far too much time dwelling on those lies that we all experience. The little ones that seem to pop into your head at the most inconvenient time and niggle away at you – endlessly. I have experienced the “you’re not creative enough for a creative writing degree” lie. The “this writers block will never end” lie. And of course, the ever-present “this piece of work is awful, don’t read it out in class” lie.

I would go out on a limb and say that we all experience these types of lie at different points in our lives. The lies change as we change, but they always seem to have the same effect – overwhelming paranoia.

One of the things I found most inspiring about hearing Amy Alward’s story first-hand, was her ability to address many of the ‘lies’ that creative writing students experience. She talked about her late arrival to the reading-game and admitted that, that even though she wasn’t a natural reader at a young age, once she found the right genre she couldn’t help but be inspired to write her own novels.

(“I don’t read enough to be a writer” lie = sorted.)

Amy then talked us through her career in publishing – the extreme competition, her lack of experience, the way that she finally got an editing job, but still not in the right genre. The ups and downs of her story gradually began to affirm, but also quell, the fears we students face: the “after graduation” unknown.

Amy’s ability to overcome countless rejections and persevere with jobs that weren’t quite what she had dreamed of, eventually led her to an excellent opportunity – to “marry her writing career with her publishing career”.

Walking away from Amy’s talk left me with something different niggling at my brain, not a lie, but a simple sentence: “I always start writing from the characters and the build the world around them, it creates heart.”

There are lots of things we don’t know. We don’t know what will happen after we graduate, we don’t know how long it will take to get that dream job. We don’t know which lie will take hold of us next. But what we do know, is that writing is an opportunity for each of us to create heart. I think that’s something to hold on to.

Amy Alward’s The Potion Diaries is a truly gripping series, written by a truly inspirational author and editor.

Not a bad Friday the 13^th if you ask me.

Maddie Kalta, 9 November 2017