Careers Week: Creative writing workshop with author AJ Campbell

On Thursday the 5 of March, I had the privilege of going to a talk about creative writing. Creative writing has been and probably will remain my main passion and focus for the rest of my life, so naturally, I was a little excited (jumping up and down, staff later commented they had never seen me so focused in a lesson before.)

The writer who came in was a very prolific author going by the pen name AJ Campbell, she finished her first book in five years, and ever since she’s dove headfirst into the world of writing and written eleven more books. 

Joining us on a Microsoft Teams call, she gave lots of advice and answered our questions, all of us desperate to sink our teeth into becoming authors, screenwriters and book illustrators. I asked what my next steps would be, the steps to finally becoming an author. She gave spectacular, priceless advice. She calmly explained in an easy-to-understand way that I would need a literary agent, who would then pitch my project to the publishers. She told me to keep writing and even provided her email in a takeaway handout given out during the session.

Another student asked if you can make a living from writing, something I was eager to know too. She explained that yes, it’s totally feasible. However, as I imagined, it takes a lot of work.

Work that, by the end of the session, we were all eager to start.

It was AJ’s passion and genuine interest that shined through the most. You could tell, AJ follows her own advice, she wasn’t just a writer, she was an avid reader too. She listed her favourite authors when asked (too many to count!) and recommended an entire book by Stephen King about writing, fittingly titled ‘On Writing.’

Reading, of course, was her biggest piece of advice, aside from the actual writing itself. 

“We learn by studying how other authors develop character arcs, build tension in stories and structure their books. It’s how we improve our craft.” 

Not forgetting disabilities and additional needs, she had multiple suggestions on how to keep up with your reading despite any circumstances. She was also honest when she couldn’t understand or quite hear a student, which is an unfortunately rather rare skill to have.

Audiobooks were a big takeaway, especially audiobooks with subtitles for the hard of hearing, something I didn’t even know existed.

“Start today. Even if it’s just one line, one paragraph. Just start!” 

The handout read, and that’s what I, and I imagine the rest of the students, immediately did after the talk finished.

Thank you to Dominic, AJ Campbell, and all the participants who took part in National Careers Week!