I’m tying up loose ends, writing missives and emails to friends and organising for the year to come. I’m making plans and carrying over and tallying up – not least my hits and misses on the writing front.
The best piece of advice I can give to a writer is don’t give up. Keep on writing and keep on sending out. The importance of this rule is never more apparent than when I’m looking over my yearly send outs, my applications, my pitches – of which I keep a log. Each story or play or idea or application I send out, I refer to as a ‘ship’ and if I am accepted or shortlisted or granted a bursary etc.. I deem it ‘home to port’, and if rejected, I log it in the ‘sunk’ column. This year 64 ships sunk and 22 came home to port laden with some sort of reward. And, I”m doing well…
Rejections are water off a duck’s back to me. It seems for every four opportunities I approach, one will welcome me, so to hell with the other three and I think it is really the only way a writer can survive.
Keep at it! Don’t let the bastards grind you down. Happy Christmas and wishing you all wonder and health in 2017.
Sue x
About suehealy
From Ireland, Sue Healy is Literary Manager at the Finborough Theatre, London, a full-time Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lincoln. Her book on theatre literary management is published by Routledge, December 2022.
Sue is an award-winning writer for stage, TV, and prose writer.
TV
Her current project, a 6x60minute TV series, is under option. She is under commission with Lone Wolf Media, producers behind PBS’ “Mercy Street”, to co-write the pilot and treatment for a six-part TV series.
Stage
Her most recent stage-play, Imaginationship (2018), enjoyed a sold out, extended run at the Finborough and later showed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Her previous stage productions include Cow (Etcetera Theatre, 2017) and Brazen (King’s Head Theatre, 2016), funded by Arts Council England. Sue’s short plays have been performed at the Criterion (Criterion New Writing Showcase), Arcola (The Miniaturists) and Hackney Attic (Fizzy Sherbet Shorts).
Radio
Her radio work includes nine plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (Opening Lines winner), WLRfm and KCLR96fm.
Prose
Sue has won The Molly Keane Award, HISSAC Prize, Escalator Award, Meridian Prize and has been published in nine literary journals and anthologies including: The Moth, Flight, Tainted Innocence, New Writer, Duality, HISSAC, New European Writers. She has been writer-in-residence on Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, and at the Heinrich Boll Cottage on Achill Island. She has also benefitted from annual artist residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and at Ginestrelle, Assisi in Italy.
An academic with a PhD in modern theatre history, specifically the Royal Court Theatre, Sue has presented her research internationally. She spent eleven years in Budapest, editing Hungary A.M. She has a PhD in modern theatre history (Royal Court Theatre) and is a UEA Creative Writing MA alumnus.
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suehealy 
December 19th, 2016 at 19:55
And to you. To more successful arrivals in 2017.
December 20th, 2016 at 23:03
Thank you!
December 19th, 2016 at 20:04
Happy Christmas to you, Sue. You keep at it, too. Best of luck with the ships in 2017.
December 20th, 2016 at 23:04
Much appreciated Mary!
December 20th, 2016 at 16:25
Thanks so much, Sue! Your advice is a buoy on high seas.
December 20th, 2016 at 23:04
That’s so lovely to hear. Best of luck to you next year!
December 22nd, 2016 at 11:36
Brilliant! Great encouragement for all writers trying to get there work out there. Your philosophy and subsequent successes are an inspiration. Thank you very much. Happy Christmas!
December 22nd, 2016 at 15:47
Thank you Karen!