What Holds Us Back?

Many thanks to everyone who braved the inclement weather to come along to our Book Week Scotland event last night and contribute to our discussion between readers and writers about 'What Holds Us Back?'. 

Things we discovered: both readers and writers struggle with imposter syndrome, issues of validation and not feeling 'good enough', and we all struggle to fit reading and writing into our lives. We also talked about how to build confidence, how to see writing as a job and not just a hobby, the importance of reading across different genres and voices and challenging our assumptions, and how to make reading groups more welcoming. How do you live with a writer, or how do you live with a non-writer? And why do we make judgements about others, about what they write or what they read? We all came away with lots of food for thought!

Special thanks go to Em Strang for travelling all the way from Lochmaben to facilitate our discussion, and to Open Book Writers and It's Not About the Book Group for giving up their usual Wednesday night meetings in order to join us. 

Until next year!