Bebe Moore Campbell - Becoming a Writer
I became interested in writing when I was a young child.
I was an avid reader from a very early age. My mother
put me in a public school in Philidelphia, when I grew
up, that was a kind of magnet school of its day. My second
or third grade techer put me in a special creative writing
class. I remember our first assignment was to write our
autobiographies. I loved everything about that assignment.
I liked asking questions of my parents, putting my story
together, even decorating the cover. I was hooked! Of
course, I didn't think about becoming a writer until
twenty years later, after I had graduated from college
and was teaching school. Before that time it never occurred
to me that I could do what I loved for a living.
I began sending short stories and poetry out to magazines
after I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh.
My work was rejected for about five years in a row. Meanwhile,
I began attending writers' workshops. I honed my craft
during these group sessions, and my writing improved.
Finally, I dashed off a short story in one sitting, and
mailed it off to ESSENSE magazine. A few weeks later
I received an acceptance letter.
I was constantly rejected for five years. By attending
very supportive writers' workshops I learned that when
the world is telling me no I must surround myself with
people who are telling me yes. I don't think I would
have ever been published if I hadn't found the friendship
and support I needed in the workshops.
The workshops weren't exactly classes but they were
forums where a writer could read her work, have it critiqued
and explore ways to improve her craft.
Writing for me is constant revision.
The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner, Writing
Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, Become
a Writer, by Dorothea Brande, On Becoming
a Novelist, by John Gardner and One Writer's
Beginnings, by Eudora Welty are books I recommend.
One of my workshop teachers, the late John Oliver Killens,
used to say, "When in doubt, deepen the conflict." And
I told myself, "Discipline is the servant of inspiration."
