August is a dead month in the legal profession in London. Lawyers and clients are on holiday. So I had a lot of time on my hands. And that was when I discovered a website, through some random Google search. It had a weekly writing challenge, and I was too late to take part in the challenge that week. But I read the stories submitted, and vowed to take part in the next week’s challenge.

The challenge was of course

Dirty Little Secrets.
Pick a famous fictional character and give them a secret vice—at the very least it should be distasteful if not outright illegal. Now give the character’s rationale in their own words. Example: Have Santa explain why he looks through women’s drawers during his rounds.

and it was my very first foray into public, accredited writing. It was how I came to this site, and how I came to meet so many great writers, readers—friends.

Without Write Anything I wouldn’t really have found the impetus to look beyond that unfulfilling job. I wouldn’t have discovered NaNoWriMo. I wouldn’t have written nearly as many stories as I have. I wouldn’t have met Jodi and neither of us would have created eMergent Publishing without the other. I wouldn’t be published.

And I don’t think I would be teaching English now. My degree isn’t English. I don’t have a qualification in English. But I teach in Further Education, where industry experience is one of the main qualifiers, and my experience in writing and publishing qualified me (along with a willingness to teach the traditionally unteachable).

I owe this site a lot. And I will always remember it, and everyone involved in it, with fondness. As I said at the start of the month, it has been an honour and a privilege. The contributors to this site, present and past, are more than just writers who sent in articles. They are colleagues, collaborators, inspirations and friends. Without them my world would be a little smaller, a little duller; I can think Write Anything for bringing them into my life.

The final few hours of 2012 are upon us. As 2013 approaches, many of us are embarking on the first year of our writing lives without Write Anything. As we begin the countdown to a New Year, let’s toast the memory of Write Anything, and look forward to what the future may bring for all of us, no matter where we may be.

A very happy new year to all our readers. And good writing now, and in the future.

We’ll see you on the bestseller list.

It was almost 7 years ago that I first became involved with the blog that would eventually change and grow into the blog you are now reading. I answered a call on a friend’s blog for weekly writers for a new blog about writing. In March of 2006, Write Stuff launched, with me as the Tuesday columnist. I had the third post.

Later that year I created the [Fiction] Friday prompt. And without realizing it, this decision would change my writing life quite a bit. I’ll be honest with you—[Fiction] Friday was a selfish act. It was intended to get me to write. In this respect it was a middling success. But life soon got in the way of writing, and before long I was simply supplying ideas for the program, but not participating.

I stuck with Write Stuff as other columnists left. And I stayed as new authors—Annie, Jodi, Paul—came on board. When the original owner stepped down, I stayed as Jodi and Paul took over. And I stayed as we became Write Anything.

The Middle

I’ve never talked much about my personal life, online, so many of you may not know that Write Stuff/Anything, has been with me through some tough years. In the last seven years, I was downsized by the mortgage crisis, moved across the country, and struggled with unemployment through a nasty recession. I’ve fought depression, been burned in a fire, rehabbed a leg injury from my bicycle being run off the road, suffered worsening cluster headaches, and endured poverty and a mercifully brief period of homelessness. So you may ask—quite fairly—Why was I the only one who stuck with this thing from beginning to end?

Because no matter what else happened in my life, Write Stuff/Anything assured that I was always writing. Maybe just once a week. Maybe just once a month. But still, writing something.

And of course there was a lot of good to temper the bad. Because of my involvement I have friends in New Jersey, Maine, Arizona (and I know I’m forgetting other states), Canada, London, France, Germany, and several in Australia. Some are friendly acquaintances I get to know through their posts here on Write Anything, and on Facebook. Some are writers who I’ve been able to partner with. Some are editors who have pushed me to write more, and better than I have before. And some are friends who I hope to meet someday, and who will always have a place to stay if they visit Central North Carolina. I’ve had five stories published by the owners of this site, and I’m working on a screenplay as well. And in the future I hope to keep working with them.

The End

But things change. Characters move on. Harry Potter graduates.

And a website that is a cooperative effort of 20 talented writers, will eventually reach the point where fatigue sets in, and the writers are pulled in different directions.

I am incredibly sad that Write Anything is closing its doors, as it feels like a friend is moving on—a friend that has held my hand through some of the worst times.

But I am not done writing. I will keep writing short stories. I will keep my fingers crossed that my personal situation keeps improving, and I will have more time to devote to writing more than just shorts.

And I will keep writing about writing. I, along with a few others from this site, will continue to write at a new blog called Today’s Author. It’s focus is a little different from Write Anything—offering many more daily writing prompts, and focusing a little more on the nuts and bolts of fitting writing into a busy, modern life. Why don’t you stop by and see what it’s about? We’re actually looking for new writers… I’m just saying…

The End Credits

My original intent was to thank a whole list of people. But the list got very long. And tedious, and I was very afraid that I would miss someone important.

So instead I’d like single out to three groups of people:

The Editors: To Annie, Paul and Jodi, I tip my hat. It has been a pleasure working with you for 5(?) years now. I’m frankly amazed, that in that time we’ve never had any serious infighting. Maybe it’s all that ocean in between us.

Pod 4:  Those of you who haven’t been behind the scenes, might now know that we are broken into editorial groups. I would like to tell each of the 5 writers who now write for my pod, and for the 3 or 4 who used to, that you have each been inspirational in your own way. And I’m glad that I’ll be working with so many of you on our new venture.

To My Readers: It’s been great to read how many of you found your way to writing through [Fiction] Friday. At the time I honestly didn’t realize how many people were involved. If I’ve had even the slightest hand in lighting your fire, that makes me indescribably happy.

So long.

And thanks for all the fish.

Dale Challener Roe

Thursday night I went to pieces. It hit me that my biggest life door was preparing to swing shut—forever. My writing partner Adam Byatt (who I met here as a [fiction] Friday punter in 2010!) sat and held a space while everything poured out… down my fingertips, across the wire and into our shared screen. He told me I was in mourning, it was okay to feel this way: adrift, empty, weighed down by a sense of doom and afraid of what comes next.

Why?

All roads lead back here. Everything I have today, professionally, is thanks to Write Stuff/Anything.

Five Years Ago…

I stumbled across Write Stuff after clicking a link on a friend’s piece of short web fiction in September 2007. That link took me to [fiction] Friday.

Back then I had a three-year-old son, I was the editor of a homebirth and parenting magazine and interested in returning to my first passion: writing fiction. But I hadn’t written anything in a long time, and the internet had radically changed the playing field.

I hung out here: submitted some pretty terrible stories to [fiction] Friday, started to make friends with the other writers who also submitted, read articles, commented where I thought I had something to add, started to understand my process and embarked on the long haul of honing my craft.

I was particularly enamoured with one person’s writing: a certain Paul Anderson! I remember writing a very badly disguised fan-girl email to him while he was out in the desert of the US chasing dinosaur bones in October 2007.

A Symbiotic Relationship

Paul became a staff writer at Write Stuff not longer after that. I remember thinking I wanted to hitch my wagons to his, because he was going places as a writer. I followed in his footsteps about a year later becoming the ‘Monday Columnist’ when Write Stuff became Write Anything. Back then it was just about the biggest thing that I could imagine happening.

In March 2008 I hijacked Paul on Facebook Chat to throw a crazy idea at him: what did he think of an anthology compromising of interconnected short stories from multiple authors? I had finished up my time as magazine editor and was ready for the next big thing. He thought it was just mad enough to work and we fell into the early stages of what has gone on to become eMergent Publishing and its multiple imprints.

Through our Write Anything connections, Paul and I coaxed Dale Challener Roe, Paul Servini, Annie Evett and Rob Diaz to go on our first publishing adventure with The Red Book in 2009. We got it over the line and in 2010 we added twelve additional authors for the Yin and Yang Book… many of those authors you see (or have seen) in the ranks of our regular contributors: Jason Coggins, Jen Brubacher, Dan Powell, Chris Chartrand, Tony Noland, Emma Newman and Benjamin Solah.

In essence, eMergent Publishing exists only because of Write Stuff/Anything.

Write Anything’s Legacy: eMergent Publishing

At the time of writing this, eP has published over 100 stories (in four anthologies) through the Literary Mix Tapes imprint. For many of those authors, it was either their first publication, the first time they’d been paid for their work, the first time they’d worked with a professional editor or all three. We’ve published two Chinese Whisperings anthologies, proving mad ideas can work, and work again. We’ve brought to publication four community anthologies: supporting communities in crisis and others who support emerging writers. We also had the pleasure of publishing Emma Newman’s debut short story collection—Em’s gone on to secure a three-book deal with Angry Robot for her Split Worlds trilogy.

The best bit is, I’ve lost count the number of debut authors we’ve had the honour of publishing.

As an editor I’ve worked on more than 300 short pieces of fiction. As a publisher, put to print nine anthologies and more stories than I can actually count. Moving into 2013 we have more than 70 authors on our books at eP and a fledgling film arm. All because I stumbled onto a little website called Write Anything and met a guy called Paul.

But eP isn’t just Paul and I. It is Dale Challener Roe, the last of the original Write Stuff writers, who has been there building websites for us, backing everything we do. And this year, Devin Watson helped to further grow our tiny empire with Literary Mix Tapes Movie Project and the brand new database and project management platform we’ll roll out in 2013 to accommodate our expanding needs. Stacey Larner, our resident proofreading juggernaut, also started her writing time at [fiction] Friday. eP is also the 70 plus authors who have believed in what we’ve done and continue to do so.

But at the end of the day, the thanks goes to the 30 odd authors who have contributed daily articles here since Write Anything’s inception with Karen Maxwell, in the days of Write Stuff. Living proof of what a single drop in an ocean can achieve. How vast those rings can become. All the lives that can be touched and changed.

I’m glad under the eP umbrella, and Paul’s vision and guidance, Write Anything got a chance to grow and evolve for another two years. For us to be able to give back something to the website and the community that has given us so much. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with and been inspired by those in my pod across the last two years: Rus, Jacqui, Zena, Jen, Devin, Adam, Jason, Laura and Paul.

Farewell, Now But Not Forever

I’m almost afraid to say good-bye, fearing this is the end of what has been a bumpy, but blessed creative run for me. I remind myself that as one door closes another one opens. I remind myself I came here alone and five years later I leave with a tribe.

As I collect up the box with my personal effects (greeting cards, messages of thanks and encouragement, books, letters, postcards, CDs and a single stained coffee mug), push in my chair one last time (and reflect on all the wonderful people who have filled this seat when I haven’t been able to) and close the door on this space, I invite you to continue down the long corridor and follow each of us through our newly opened doors on the next leg of our adventures as storytellers.

The end of the world… or not

It seems impossible that I am writing my last post for Write Anything. After being invited as a writer for Write Stuff five years ago, the statistics tell me that I’ve written just under 200 posts. My hope is that some of the advice I dished out was meaningful and assisted those who read it. I know I have learned a lot from the interactions, critiques and articles shared on the site over the years. Writing for me has always been a path of discovery, a journey of reaffirming things I may know, or skills I need strengthening. For growth to occur in anything there is a point where something has to change or alter in order for a new opportunity to present itself. Sometimes that change has to be an end or a completion.

Through my involvement with Write Stuff and its evolved identity Write Anything, I’ve gained some wonderful friendships, been taught life skills in a range of levels and am thankful for these lessons. It’s a tough call to announce the end of something so many people have fond memories and strong emotions about; but it is the right one for many reasons.

The Mayans celebrate the end of this calendar with a vigour and excitement, not because it predicts the end of the world, but rather the end of an era. With their calendars spanning 395 years, they view time in a cyclical way, rather than our western linear view.

Similarly, the announcement of Write Anything as an interactive site is not the end; but a completion of a cycle. New projects, exciting opportunities and refreshed friendships will emerge, growing from strength to strength in the new year.

I look forward to following you on your journey and am excited about the next ‘leg’ of mine.

If Write Anything did nothing else, it gave me that push to carry that book forward. Paradoxically, the format of working on a year-long project was put forward by Write Anything’s editor, Paul Anderson, for a very personal reason. His own writing was in disarray, the logistical and emotional demands of work and real life having led to an unacceptably diminished output of words. This scheme would get him—and all of us—back on track. It worked pretty well for several of us, less well for others, not at all for some.

Since I came on board, some of my fellow Write Anything writers have become so successful with their writing that they needed to shift priorities, which meant moving on from this site. Others have seen their creative fires burn so low that they felt they had nothing more to contribute. People left and successors were found for the Write Anything group. Now that Write Anything itself is going on to that great Google cache in the sky, will us writers limit ourselves to our own respective blogs? Or will some successor group coalesce around a new center of gravity?

Most of the time that I wrote for this site, I was half-wondering when someone would call me out on the fact that I was talking about writing without ever having published a novel. Why should anyone give credence to anything I said? Having sold a couple of stories for publication, did that really qualify me to do anything other than document my own progress along this writing journey? Who is Tony Noland, anyway? He’s just some guy, right?

Exactly. I’m just some guy who writes stories. Some are good, some are better than good. If I can write, so can you. With all my angst, depression, hesitancy, fear, anxiety, ego, and misconceptions, if I can write, so can you.

What this site meant is that in order to write something good, you must first get over the fear of writing something bad. Whatever bad means to you with respect to writing—trite, incoherent, derivative, dull, predictable, stale, old-fashioned, purple, convoluted, gushy, etc, etc—the essentials of writing something not-bad is to write, evaluate, learn and improve.

Write something. Write whatever. Write stuff.

Write anything.

And then keep going.

My goals since January have evolved, shaped by the time contraints of my current lifestyle – my family needs, the classes I teach, the barriers life puts up like broken cars and sick children. I’ve rarely written so close to deadline as I have this past year (and past deadline, in some cases). Not since my first years in college, at any rate, not since my writing topics and the credit given to the writing were entirely my own. I’ve never written so little since I purposefully brought writing back into my life ten years ago – including my time in graduate school where I did no creative writing at all. But keep in mind Edison’s famous “I’ve learned 10,000 ways it won’t work”: failure is in the perspective.

I did not achieve what I set out in my goals: finish a lengthy story I began four years ago. I did not achieve what I hoped: write something, however small, weekly. But I did something more important. I discovered the limitations my current career and lifestyle put on my energy and time, and found a way to keep writing anyway.

I have learned that I need things to help me focus. A deadline. An editor expecting my work. I have learned that I can write in much less time than I used to. A quiet evening isn’t enough for a story; but it is enough for a poem, a blog post, a journal, a short sketch of a character’s mind. And I have learned that I can have balance if I both ask for it and expect it. I deserve it and if it is not something that can be given to me (and it isn’t) then I will make it for myself.

And I have.

A writer doesn’t have to write all the time. There. Chew on that, self-made-expert-writer types who seemingly exist only to look down from lofty branches of the interwebz and hurl scorn at those amongst the leaf litter who declare “I want to write”.

I am sick of the persistent diatribe out there that you’re not a writer, unless you are:

1. Writing ALL THE WORDS (all of the time).
2. An expert on your target market (MUST know your target market).
3. Sleeping, breathing, eating, shitting your characters and/or plot.
4. Prolific. I’m talking a short story or Friday Flash every week and DON’T FORGET to write an entire years worth of blog posts and schedule them to go live twice a day.
5. Knowledgeable about every obscure genre and their rules (DON’T BREAK THE RULES) including the equally as obscure authors that write in them.

Excuse me for laughing, but really? What if I just want to write something? I don’t necessarily want to publish it, or even finish it. I just enjoy stringing words together and creating a story.

If it never sees the light of day, I am still a writer.

If I don’t finish my novella, I am still a writer.

If I don’t write every day, hey look at that–I am still a writer.

And if I don’t want to make squillions, or ‘commit’ to being a full-time author, well that’s ok too. Because not everyone who writes, wants that. And what is wrong with that? Don’t presume to tell someone they don’t qualify for your exclusive club because their perception of “how it works” is different to yours. That their journey is any less valid because you didn’t do it that way.

Yes you may have experience. Yes, years of hard slog gives you an edge; a well honed blade of rejection, effort, reward, satisfaction. But no, it does not give you the right to belittle the people who come after you by telling them they’re doing it wrong, or shouldn’t have bothered in the first place. There is nothing that riles me more, than a writer who believes there are set rules to the game and if they’re not followed (as they follow them), you can’t deign to call yourself a writer. Well pooh to that.

As an emergent writer myself, I’ve developed a thick skin. Or should I say, an inbuilt set of blinkers for the sort of negative and potentially soul-destroying rot that pollutes the online world. I’ve learnt to filter the crap from the gold.

There are thousands of positive, encouraging and helpful writers out there, who are able to communicate the lessons they’ve learned along the way without turning into cave dwelling ogres. It is those writers, who remember clearly what it’s like starting out – how positively daunting it is for the newbies to get themselves out there, let alone admit that they want to be a writer – who often become the emerging writer’s greatest support.

It is these people, dear emerging writer, that you must seek out. Beware the advice that leaves you feeling deflated and ready to kick it all in. If you really want to do it, you will. In whatever way, shape or time is right for you. It’s your journey. Your experience. Don’t let a cave-dwelling ogre define you. Just be what you will be.

My name is Laura and I am a <<research freak, rubbish house wife, wine-swilling, complete bibliophile, and when the time is right>> writer.

Multiple levels: First, I’m what’s now called multi-racial. My mother is Chinese, born in China. My father is American Black, which means a mix of African ancestry, White ancestry, and according to family legend, Native American ancestry. Most Black families have similarly mixed heritage, but individuals differ in which parts they choose to acknowledge and how much. If pressed, most of us will admit to having white ancestors, but we may or may not choose “White” as one of our choices on the census form; we may or may not opt for “Mixed” or “Multi-racial” or just “Black.” As for the Native American part, I’ve increasingly come to feel that in the absence of any documentation, I can’t really claim it. (I don’t want people to think I’m trying to be trendy– which is just as shallow and self-absorbed a motivation as is wanting to be trendy.)

Second, I spent most of my childhood in Tanzania, where I experienced an involuntary reclassification… as White. In many parts of post-colonial Africa, if you came from a developed country (including Europe, UK, US, Canada, Australia…), you were considered “European” or “white,” and identified with the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and continuing economic oppression. At seven, I obviously didn’t manage to articulate much of this; I couldn’t get why they were calling me white. At that age I had developed very little of what we refer to as racial consciousness. I got the idea that race was something other people said about you, usually in a mean way.

I still pretty much have that idea. If there’s been any change, it’s that I now know it goes way beyond talk. I’ve worked for over 11 years in an urban public school district; the rates of achievement for students of color other than Asians are way below that for white students, by any measure you can think of. (If my capitalization is erratic, you can regard it a sign of conflicted feelings on my part.) Yes, poverty is a factor– but Black and Hispanic students who do not meet the federal definition of poverty still graduate at a lower rate than White students who do. At the same time, we’re grappling with a shifting federal definition of race and a burgeoning population of students and families identifying multiple ethnicities. Race comes increasingly to seem like both an arbitrary and artificial distinction, and a basis for real and harmful discrimination.

Well-intentioned people often say things like: “the solution to racism is to ignore race.” It’s a nice idea, but it’s not an option yet. We’re in a campaign season, and whether or not you agree with his policies (I don’t, above half), the outpouring of vitriol against the Obama family ought to horrify any thoughtful person.

Or, to bring the topic a little closer to the goals of this blog: Check out these links:
Black Faces on Covers Don’t Sell Books
Whitewashing in Young Adult Literature

The really sad thing? My response to this story when it broke (several years ago now) was “Still?” My buddy Steve Barnes had his first book, Street Lethal, whitewashed in exactly this way in 1983. His more recent books have had better covers, some quite outstanding. I thought the field had moved along a little. Maybe YA sci-fi/fantasy marches to a different and more conservative drum. Or maybe it’s because Steve’s agent at Warner went to bat for the concept on the Insh’Allah series– the race of the various characters was central to the plot– and Justine Larbalestier’s agent didn’t.

E-books often don’t have cover art as such. I would have been curious to see how Zoo City looked. If you haven’t read it, Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes, is set in a near-future South Africa. It’s a good story, with some sad and some seriously creepy stuff. I found it slightly disorienting because, although the city was clearly populated by people of many races and many mixtures, the characters weren’t always identified up front as to race. Some of this was due to my ignorance, I think: some characters may have been racially identified in ways that would be obvious to another person from that part of the world, but not to an American.

In American fantasy/SF, characters are pretty much assumed white unless stated otherwise. Counterexamples exist, but they’re few and far between (Gaiman’s Anansi Boys, and how lame is it that we have to have a Brit come over here and show us how to do it? Norah Jemisin‘s work, in which characters more or less default to brown).

I’ve occasionally asked myself whether I write like a “colored person.” The only answer I can really give is that I write like myself. My color is a part of me; it’s not all of me. I think my writing reflects the experience of otherness more than many white writers, not nearly as much as many colored writers that I’m familiar with. I think my writing reflects my religious beliefs far more than it does my experience of color.

I believe ethnic identification is ultimately delusional and regressive. Yet in immediate daily life, in a “short term” that lasts lifetimes and generations, it can be beneficial, even survival-necessary. Ethnic identification therefore is a game that as humans we are forced to play, forced to collude in. Think of us all as spies in enemy territory, playing roles that hide our true selves, suffering damage for reasons we believe to be worthy.

The game is stacked against us. We have a moral obligation to cheat.

The only way to play this game and not be destroyed by it is to play it consciously and without attachment: like getting dressed for a job interview. We may choose to represent ourselves honestly, or to hide or falsify parts of ourselves. In either case these must be conscious choices, whether impelled by need or by moral principle or some other contextual consideration.

Writers too often get caught up in their own prose, believing flowery words spotlight their burgeoning writerly skills. On the contrary. The collection of words may be beautiful, but are they effective? That’s why people read their novel aloud. It sounds completely different to the ear than to the mind. Does it still flow when you hear it or are the sentences stilted and forced, or wandering? Be brutal. Change the phrasing until it sounds right.

Here are some of the most effective wordiness fixes you can make:

1. Don’t use ‘very’. It’s a cardboard hammer: looks good on paper, but fails in the harsh glare of reality.
2. Limit prepositional phrases. Readers get lost in the maze of phrases starting with ‘in’, ‘from’, ‘after’–those words that you think add colorful detail and readers see as distracting. If those details are so important, give them their own sentence or show them in situ.
3. Limit adjectives and adverbs to max two per noun/verb. In writing, creativity and sloth can look a lot alike to the newbie writer. Let me help you with that: Creativity is using the right nouns and verbs in the right place. Sloth is expecting adjectives and adverbs to do the heavy lifting.
4. Skip meaningless phrases like ‘given the fact that’. They bury your lead. Just tell us the facts.
5. Eliminate ‘which’ and ‘that’. How often is ‘that’ necessary to get an idea across? Take it out, see if your idea comes across. Usually, it’s as useful as a chocolate teapot.
6. Use active instead of passive words. Using ‘are’, ‘is’, and their ilk requires additional explanation to communicate the action of your scene your scene’s action. Can you turn it around? Change ‘She was energized and started to clean her house with renewed vigor.’ to ‘Energized, she vigorously cleaned her house.’
7. For that matter, ‘started’ (as in the example above) is rarely required. We don’t need to know when something started AND that it’s occurring. The latter is sufficient.
8. Don’t confuse quantity with quality. Your reader won’t. You want support? Buy a bra. Don’t get it by bolstering your word count.
9. Don’t repeat yourself. It’s tempting to say the same thing a few different ways, just in case the reader didn’t get it. Don’t. Trust your reader or fix your prose. Or do both.
10. Negatives are wordy; positives put the reader in a better frame of mind for your story.
11. Don’t mitigate your argument with words like ‘mostly’, ‘kind of’, ‘is possible’. Be strong, aggressive, sure of yourself. Believe in yourself and your readers will also. When you really want to slap someone with the truth, do it. Apologize later if you must, but lay your soul out there for all to see.
12. Metaphors and similes are clarifiers. Cliches are filler. The former are the WD 40 of your story arc. The latter are sinkholes the reader tries to skip over.
13. Get rid of non-essential information, even if it’s interesting. It slows the story pace. Or grinds it to a halt. Tom Clancy and James Michener can get away with it. Most of us can’t.

That’s it. Now go write!

PS–I marked some of my edits so you could see how it changed this article. Better, don’t you think?

I found out Write Anything was shutting down while reading through a stack of emails from writers I’d met through Write Anything and its associated projects. I’d just put up a Thank You card on my desk from one of the other editors, and I was debating whether I could safely commit to editing another colleague’s novella. To say that this community is a real and sizeable part of my life is an understatement. It has been an inspiration, a revelation, and occasionally a frustration. I’m still shocked that it will all end in January.

My advice to you—and therefore to myself, though who takes their own advice, even when it’s good?—is to identify what Write Anything has given to you and ensure you find it elsewhere. There’s a new website going up called Today’s Author, involving many of Write Anything’s staff, and there are probably others somewhere that you’ve noticed. What I mean to say is: Don’t let it go. Don’t lose this inspiration, this great community, just because this one is going. Give yourself the support from elsewhere. Keep inspired. Keep challenged. And keep writing.

Adieu.