On the 20th of September 2023, MixMatched hosts, Emma Robdale, and Alice Riley made their way to Margate Bookie Festival, to speak as guest authors on the panel for, ‘Before They Were Famous’ at Droit House on Margate Pier, at 11.00am. They were joined by fellow authors Anna Gash, Cesca Baker and Glyn Brown, and invited to speak about their journeys as authors and creatives, particularly if they faced adversities to writing and being published.
The panel discussed topics such as finance, and how many working-class writers did not have the luxury of a quiet space, or time, dedicated to writing, and you’d just have to try and squeeze it in! Mental health and chronic pain were discussed in relation to writing and barriers relating to time and motivation.
Emma Robdale discussed her own barriers of Neurodivergence, particularly in relation to being dyslexic and Autistic, in that, alongside barriers she encountered regarding grammar and concentration, were perceived prejudices and stigma from her early schooling; with it been seen to be counterintuitive for her to go into English subjects, due to being dyslexic, and her also being discouraged from pursuing drama, due to incorrect assumptions that she would not like working in groups. These assumptions were made by people who had never met her, and only seen her diagnostic criteria.
Emma went on to talk more extensively about the research she is embarking on within her PHD, ‘Neurodivergent Culture Studies within Creative Writing and Performance’, and how she hoped that this research would build a sense of Neurodivergent solidarity, as well as help dispel ableist attitudes surrounding neurodivergent potential and creativity. She spoke upon how Neurodivergent individuals had to explore their own modes of creation, such as exploring and removing masks, and perhaps uncovering their own tones, register and syntax.
Emma talked about her experimental novel, ‘The Curious Case of the Cat Caught in the Headlights’, and Alice spoke upon her writing of a romance novel; she expanded that, for her, though she had not intentionally made her character neurodivergent, her character naturally leaned towards ND tendencies, due to Alice being an ND author. The panel stressed that this was important regarding representation of any minority; that when authors, from diverse backgrounds, feel comfortable in allowing elements of their identity and nature into their writing, this could have the power to improve naturally occurring representations (rather than having ‘imagined’ and sometimes heavily stigmatized writings by authors who are not part of the minority group being represented).
The talk was finished off with writing and publication tips for the audience, and each of the four panellists took turns giving ‘pearls of wisdom’, some being….
- Try and keep your joy of writing alive! – You don’t always have to write a novel! – you can start with something that inspires you.
- You don’t need to feel guilty for not writing… life does get in the way!
- Reading in the genre you want to write in can be really helpful with getting inspiration.
- Ultimately, you have to write the first draft of the novel for you… because you want to write it and believe in the story… save the rest of the worrying until you’ve got a first draft!
- Have a first draft before you worry about a publisher. 🙂
MixMatched very much enjoyed participating, and really enjoyed expanding upon conversations around writing and barriers. – Both Alice and Emma were interviewed afterwards (which you can listen to on Margate Bookie Website) And we very much hope we’ll be back next year!
Read the whole 2023 program here!
Our next MixMatched night is on the 29th of November, 7.00-9.30pm at the Mooring Cafe! – Hope you can make it. 🙂
