By Sue Fleming

1. Give yourself time in your life for your writing and do justice to your muse!
2. Preserve the ideas as they come to you – scribble them down, cut them out or scratch them on the wall!
3. Read, read and read.
4. Always draft and re-draft your work until it shines like summer.
5. Proof reading is vital!
6. If you find yourself cleaning the bathroom instead of writing you know you’re in trouble!
7. Talk to other writers and learn from them.
8. Take a course- it may well include material you might have discovered on your own but you’ll discover it more quickly!
9. Keep to deadlines.
10. If you feel out of your comfort zone when writing, be comforted that this is a good thing

Sue Fleming has coordinated the Professional writing program at the Adelaide College of the Arts (TafeSA) for more than four years and has taught more than 200 new writers the basics of creative writing. She also acts as mentor to final year students studying in the accredited Advanced Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing). Sue has a passion for writing and writers and has participated for the last two years in the Peer Assessment Panel for Literature at Arts SA. Her current challenge is helping to shape ‘Co-West Coworking’, Adelaide’s first creative writing coworking space.

Sue will be running the workshop Creative Writing Basics on Thursday 20 March, 6pm – 9pm. Bookings essential.