Jayne

Make friends. Take classes. Learn what supports you in your work, and look for more of that. If critiquing upsets you or makes you stall out and not write, don’t workshop things. If it helps, do it.

About the classes, don’t just take writing classes. Our job is to reflect the world, so the more we know about it, the better we can describe it. I love plant identification classes, for instance, and I’m so glad I took astronomy and earth science and chemistry, and life drawing and Japanese, and, well, Old Time Fiddle by Ear. Be open to new information and new experiences. It’s all material.