Listened in to an interview between Jennifer Byrne and Margaret Atwood. It was from last years Sydney Writer’s Festival.
One thing she said struck me. She posited that when she began writing, one just wrote and it was difficult due to it being uncommon. These days. she said, you can do a Creative Writing course at University and there is much more competition to capture people’s attention.
I suspect she was not agreeable to people ‘learning’ how to write at tertiary level. I wondered if she held the view that a writer simply writes and suffers for her passion or whether it is something that is now a realistic alternative for people who are drawn to the pursuit.
photo credit – http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/3/3/1299156206118/Margaret-Atwood-007.jpg
melanie wass 
