Heather talks about being a writer

I was invited to give the 22 members of the Warkton WI some insight into this business of being a writer. The secretary asked for 'an interactive session', and one could see her reasoning. It may be that somewhere there exists a passive, sleepy branch of the Institute happy to sit back in their chairs and listen. With this one, I had to be prepared to pause my rehearsed script to answer impromptu questions. No heckling, you understand, just an alert, highly curious group.

I began with stark facts, how precarious a writer's living must be when 56% of the UK population read less than five books per year. (Happily, when I conducted a straw poll, the Warkton women reversed this statistic: more than half had read between ten and 20 books so far in 2006.) I think they were genuinely surprised though, when I quoted the author Philippa Gregory in the Times, saying that the average income of a UK writer stood at £6000 per year.

Continuing in interactive mode, I gave out a multiple choice quiz: ten questions to determine if they had the personality of a writer. The results flushed out a couple of secret scribblers. I don't know, but I'd be so pleased if the talk encouraged them to come out of hiding.

My intention was to end the session by getting them to do some creative work, based on the five-minute timed writings Roberta Allen teaches in her book 'Fast Fiction'. At the same time I knew the fear of facing a blank page might be overwhelming, and I didn't want anyone made so uncomfortable. So the members voted, and a whisker thin majority chose to have me read instead.

In hindsight, I think I ought to have pushed them, challenged them. That was also the branch president's opinion, when we spoke afterwards. Should another opportunity arise, and it may well do, the Warkton women are definitely a group with something to say, so I'll let them.