Bianca Breen: I can’t wait to see where it goes from here

To my novel: It was lovely to finally meet you. We’ve had been a few years of confusion, tears (mostly mine), and rewrites, and I wasn’t sure we were ever going to make it. But we finally clicked within a KSP Writers’ Centre cabin. With two weeks amongst the trees, a whiteboard, and time to get to know each other, we created something pretty special. We brought a story about a boy and his magical wolf to life. We replotted the whole story to add the conflict and stakes it was missing, and even wrote around 7,000 words of the new draft. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

To the whiteboard: You are one of the best things about staying at KSP. Thank you for your services – from planning a villain to tracking my word count, you make such a difference to the writing process. And I’m sorry my partner drew inappropriate things on you when he visited.

To the writers who came before me: Thank you for writing your thoughts and experiences in the visitor’s book. It is such a joy to join you in a long line of creatives who have stayed and weaved words within this cabin, and it’s an honour to make my own mark and reach out to future writers, even if I don’t know it.

To the KSP Writers’ Centre team: Thank you for understanding that this writer runs on cheese and providing the most delicious cheese and cracker combo for me and Jackie, and for answering my every email in such a timely manner. You know how to look after your guests.

To Katharine Susannah Pritchard: Your gardens and house are beautiful and I feel honoured being able to share in it. I know you made the most of your very own writing space, and thank you for showing the rest of us that we deserve a writing cabin out the back of our own. (Partners, are you listening?)

To the writer staying in the third cabin: I’m very sorry you saw me getting my hourly steps in while wearing my pyjamas, socks, and slip-ons. I didn’t realise anyone else was staying.

To the writer reading this post:

1. Your work is worthy. Please write it.

2. Read. Not only does it count as research, but you’ll also be practicing mindfulness in this loud, busy world. Win win!

3. Your writing is an investment, and that always costs time and sometimes money. It’s okay to attend that course or receive that feedback.

4. No draft is ever wasted, no matter how terrible rewriting and editing can feel. It’s all part of the process.

5. Remember that writing is a skill that requires practice. If you picked up an instrument for the first time, no one would expect you to play concert pieces. Writing is the same.

To the writer reading this post and considering a stay at KSP:

1. Do it. Apply! Apply for everything! They say the difference between a published writer and an unpublished writer is that the published writer never gave up. You’ll never grow if you don’t sign yourself up for new experiences.

2. Remember that rest is part of the writing process. Sometimes the well is empty, and you need to refill it before you can draw water from it again. I played the Sims 4 almost every evening, and though it takes a while to push away the guilt of ‘wasted’ time, rest is so necessary. I guess I just micro-managed pixel people instead of my own characters for a while.

3. Make friends with the neighbours. By the neighbours, I mean the quendas, the bees, the birds, and the cat in the house behind the cabins.

4. Attend a writer’s group. I know you’ll just want to be a hermit who hisses whenever someone comes near, but listening to other writers and taking the chance to talk about your own work is so important.

5. Stretch.

Bianca Breen, KSP Fellow 2024