Coming Full Circle: Returning To UVA’s Young Writers

Many of my readers do not know this, but when I was 17 years old, I went to a writer’s camp at the University of Virginia (UVA), where I ended up going to college the following year. However, it was at the Young Writer’s Workshop that I first discovered my writer’s soul.

Over the weekend, I was honored to have been invited to speak at the 35th reunion & conference of Young Writer’s at Sweet Briar, Virginia. It was a gift that could not have come at a better time. Even though I knew I wanted to be a writer at 17, it took me an additional 17 years to finally become the writer I always wanted to be.

Now that I am finally writing full time, which I truly believe is my life’s calling, it was only right to make a pilgrimage back to Young Writers, and really come back to the craft of writing.

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I presented a workshop on “Propelling Stories In The Media,” and also spoke about my own struggle with writer’s block that lasted almost eight years, leading me to question whether or not I was even a ‘real’ writer to begin with.

It was wonderful to make new friends, see old faces and most importantly, reconnect with my guru, Margo Figgins, the founder and director of YWW. I left Virginia with a renewed connection to my craft and most importantly, felt totally reconnected to my writer’s soul.

“You may not be young, you may not call yourself a writer, but you will always be a Young Writer.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

 

 

 

 

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