On the last day of Week 4 of Clarion South, Gardner Dozois presented some thoughts on life after the workshop to the class of 17 students. Below I’ve included my summary of the learnings. Most of these fantastic lessons are relevant to all writers, not just the people who’ve attended Clarion, which is why I’ve included them here.

Please note, these learnings are not verbatim and represent my interpretations of the discussion. In no circumstances should this content be treated as direct quotes.

  • Persistence: Two or three of you will become professional writers. Two or three of you will pop in and out of the writing field from time to time. The rest of you will likely disappear as writers, choosing to do something else entirely. What makes the difference, often more than talent, is persistence. Many of you will decide that it’s too much effort or find something else.
  • Be confident: At times, the world may seem as if it’s doing what it can to discourage you. If you decide your stories are bad because other people don’t like them, you’ll lose. You have to be confident in your writing, otherwise no-one else will be.
  • Enjoy yourself: Write what you enjoy reading. That’s where you’ll find your energy.
  • Ask yourself: Ask yourself why you want to write? If it’s to become rich or famous, think long and hard. You’re probably not going to become rich or famous through writing (though now there are more opportunities than there were before to make a living at it). If being rich and famous is what you want, you need to rethink things.
  • Invest yourself in your stories: Many of you are writing other people’s stories. You’ve not invested yourself in them. The only reason I care to read is to learn from someone else’s perspective. In the entire history of the universe there’ll never be another person that sees the world as you do. If you don’t bring your viewpoint to this, what’s the point? Let’s see what the world looks like to you, otherwise why bother? If people can see how the world looks to you, that’s a good legacy. I can pick up an author’s work from the 1950s and see exactly how they looked at the world.
  • Read everything: If you want to write Science Fiction or Fantasy, read a lot of it. If you don’t like to read, why are you trying to become a writer? Read everything. Read journalism, plays, poetry, non-fiction.
  • Write first, market later: Don’t write to the market. Write your story first, then look around to see which markets it may be suited to. Otherwise, you’re writing will end up homogeneous. You have to use two brains: your creative brain to write; another brain to market your work.
  • A note about success: Success and failure in the Clarion workshop will not determine your success in the field. Sometimes Clarion kicks in for people years after they have completed it. The best writers at the workshop are not necessarily the ones that will become professional writers.
  • Keep learning: It’s all ladders. After the Clarion ladder, there’ll be another, and when you’ve climbed that, you’ll find another. You’ll never run out of ladders to climb because there’s always something to learn as a writer to improve your craft. The day you say you’ve learnt enough and stop climbing the next ladder your work will turn to crap. Never stop learning.