Literary Birthday – 17 May – Máire Fisher

Happy Birthday, Máire Fisher, born on 17 May 1958.

Máire Fisher Quotes

1. Read your work aloud. What seems/sounds fine as you write it, often clunks when you read it aloud. Sometimes it’s just one word dragging a sentence down. When you read aloud you’ll hear it.
2. Contain your writing. It’s fine to let a few trusted friends/fellow writers in on your story, but try not to tell everyone and his brother what you’re writing. The more you tell your story, the less fresh it will be and (very likely) the less you want to write it.
3. I like writing alone, and do so often, but a good way of committing a set time to writing is to make writing dates. Meet with a friend and write together. Some people hate this idea. I like the energy generated when I write with someone else or in a group.
4. I see myself as someone who facilitates writing, provides a space where writers feel safe. I firmly believe that new writing is tender writing. Words that have just hit the paper aren’t robust enough to stand up to scrutiny or critique. (Maire Fisher)
5. I’m such a firm believer in getting the story out, getting it all written down, so I suppose that’s what I would say. I’m not saying, ‘Don’t edit’. Of course there comes a stage when you have to stop, look back, look over, see where you are, what still needs to be written. But don’t get hung up on needing your writing to be perfect, particularly in that first flush of the first draft. (Maire Fisher)

Máire Fisher is a South African freelance writer, editor, and author. Birdseye is her first novel. The Enumerations is her second. She edited the anthology, Follow the Road.

Read: The Writers Write Interview – Máire Fisher

Source for photograph: Author’s Website

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar

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