Saturday 8 January 2011

Sheep-Pig

Dick King-Smith, author of The Sheep-Pig amongst many other delightful books, died this week. If you've only seen the film of 'Babe', read the book, which is has so much more to it. He wrote animal stories with charm and honesty.

Something I learned from reading the obits this week was that Dick King-Smith was a good farmer and a poor business man and so failed in farming twice, then trained to teach and finally started writing when he was over fifty. I find this heartening. For one thing, it reminds us that it's never to late to start.

Also, one of the great things about writing is that all our experiences can be drawn upon to feed what we write. Nothing is lost. So those of you who are trying to be writers and feel you're not getting anywhere, value whatever it is that you do day by day. Even if it's school and you hate it, it can all be turned to gold.

NB If it's school and you hate it THAT MUCH, don't just muddle through. Don't be too scared or too proud to get help. Who can you talk to?

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