Day 3: My Favourite Writer
I don’t have one and I think if I did I would feel a little unfair. Like did I have a favourite book growing up or do I favour one child over the other? I would have to say no. I like some more than others but that’s it. As for the writing mentors I’ve tried this but the 2 so far weren’t as focused so quickly we fell out of simpatico.
However I have had the opportunity to meet 3 authors I admire greatly. They are not necessarily my favourites but they rank up there as women authors who are worthy of mention
First at university I worked with Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer. I wasn’t a big fan of 
her works as it was of a time and space I didn’t recognise but this woman worked at her writing. Every day from 9-5 she would be in her office writing. It was the first time that I ever conceived writing as an actual job. She was disciplined, something I still struggle with today and there was an order to her that made you realise that there was a lot of strength and passion in this petite woman. I learned how to write as work.
Then I met Tsitsi Dangerembga a Zimbabwean author of Nervous Conditions the book I wrote my dissertation on. Her life as an African girl who had lived in the UK then moved back to Africa mirrored mine and I met her in London as she was promoting a film. It wasn’t the meeting of spirits I hoped for but I realised that some writers aren’t necessarily comfortable with their gushing readers. She was one of them. And yes, when inspired I can gush with the best of them. I learned that how one writes and how one is in real life aren’t always the same but people will assume.
Then most recently I met blogger turned writer Belle Du Jour at a Sunday Times event in 
Oxford. Yes for a woman who doesn’t leave zone 2 without a lot of bribing I managed to score a ticket to the event where India Knight was interviewing her. I love her honesty as a writer although you can see that there was so much left unsaid in those books. I met her afterwards and realised that everyone has a story and a voice and that to write is a means of expressing a lot of emotions that many people keep repressed.
And so whilst these may not be writers that are my favourite they have inspired me to be a disciplined writer who shares her stories with others. And for that I thank them
© Chelsea Black
